Greetings
from Darjeeling
Darjeeling
tea, the image bearer of India in the export markets, has to break out
of its traditional shell in order to maintain its uniqueness, says Dr
Nikhil Ghosh Hajra
Darjeeling
grows unique ‘muscatel’ flavoured tea at an altitude of 600- 2,000 metre.
The production of this variety of tea is not even 1 per cent of the
world production but quality-wise it is one of the best in the world
and is renowned for its flavour. The turnover of the Darjeeling tea
industry is nearly $7.5 million and although the annual production of
Darjeeling tea is a mere 2 per cent of the total production in the country,
the produce is often referred to as the image bearer of Indian tea export.
At present there are 65 functioning tea estates in Darjeeling, covering
an area of approximately 18,000 hectares.
Since
independence, the tea industry of Darjeeling, in particular, has been
gradually declining in many respects, that is, in the field of development,
profitability and management, as there is hardly any profit to plough
back into the plantations.
The
primary reason being that there has been no increase in production mainly
due to the old age of the tea bushes (100 years and over). No systematic
uprooting and replanting programme has been undertaken in the last 50
years.
Despite
the release of high yielding and quality clones and availability of
modern scientific field practices, no increase in production has resulted.
The average yield is only 540 kg/ha only, which is well below the all
India average of 2000 kg/ha. To bail out the industry from the situation
to a certain extent the Darjeeling Tea Research and Development Centre
(DTRDC) carries out and promotes research to increase production and
also acts as an efficient channel for transmission of research findings
to the field. The European Commission has further tightened its norm
on the use of pesticides.
The new stringent norms of maximum residue level (MRL) are particularly
harsh on tea producers, particularly India, which heavily exports Darjeeling
teas to the European countries. Only dicofol, ethion, quinalphos, endosulfan,
deltamethrin, fenazaquin, propargite and paraquat are registered for
application on tea and these chemicals are also to be applied with the
recommendations of the research institutes.
However,
keeping these facts in view, persistence of some widely used insecticides
in processed tea at different intervals of application during different
seasons has been carried out at the institute. Further, due to the increasingly
hazardous procedures involved in tea cultivation due to application
of chemical-based fertilisers and pesticides, the emphasis in Darjeeling
has shifted to a safer and environment friendly bioorganic tea cultivation.
DTRDC being at the centre stage of such bioorganic cultivation has concluded
some experiments on different organic techniques and has been conducting
some more research as a path-finder for the organic tea planters of
Darjeeling.
Current
situation
The
Indian tea industry is passing through a very tough time as realisation
plummets due to poor global and domestic demand. The situation of the
Darjeeling tea industry is also indeed grave and solely dependent on
the high selling price of the processed tea to the buyers, which is
in fact beyond the control of the industry.
In
order to meet the challenges certain strategies are to be adopted. The
tea bushes are to be rehabilitated by both short term and long term
methods. In the short term, tea estates of Darjeeling should undertake
rejuvenation and pruning of the tea plantations with inter-planting
at the rate of approximately 3 to 5 per cent of their total tea bearing
area. This will enable the tea estates to get the returns much earlier
(within 4 to 5 years from the time of operation) than uprooting and
replanting.
In
the long term, the tea estates should uproot and replant bushes with
appropriate clones at the rate of approximately 2.5 per cent of its
total area so that in 40 years their tea areas will be completely renovated.
As tea is cultivated on steep slopes in Darjeeling hills, soil erosion
has been a major problem.
It
has been estimated that proper soil conservation in Darjeeling will
result in a 20 per cent increase in crop yield. To deal with the problem
certain established soil conservation measures should be undertaken
in tandem with the need of the specific area. Tea as a beverage is also
facing stiff competition from the soft drink market. This threat can
be met to a certain extent by...
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