For a cup that cheers
By V.P. Prabhakar

IN India, it is said, every time is tea-time. In spite of this, how many of us know that India is both the biggest producer as well as consumer of tea in the world. While 75 per cent of the produce is consumed within the country, only 25 per cent of it is exported, according to Y.D. Pande, Director-General of the Tocklai Experimental Station of the Tea Research Association, Jorhat (Assam). Tocklai is the oldest and the largest research station of its kind in the world.

Since its inception, Tocklai has become synonymous with research on tea in India. A phenomenal increase in production of tea in North East India from 234 million kg in 1951 to about 600 million kg in 1997, clearly under-lines the impact of research and development on production. The average productivity of the Tea Research Association (TRA) member estates, which is at present 800, covering 75 per cent of the total tea growing area of North East India is about 56 per cent more than the non-members, which he claimed is a glaring outcome of effective implementation of Tocklai’s R&D results.

The tea crop is considered to be ecofriendly, labour intensive, women friendly and helps the renewal of natural resource based agro-industry. It utilises slopy lands, otherwise not suitable for agriculture. In 1900 the area under tea crop was 2.11 hectares and the yield was 424 kg per hectare. At that time the domestic consumption was just 2.4 per cent and export was 97 per cent. However, in 1997 the area under this was 403 lakh hectares. The production was 810.6 million kg and the per hectare yield was 1840 kg per hectare. Domestic consumption has gone up to 75 per cent, while the export is just 25 per cent.

In the 19th century, the contributions towards the progress of the tea industry was due to the untiring personal efforts of pioneers. According to a book "Discover North East", three individuals — Maniram Dutt Burua, an Assamese nobleman, and two British adventurers,Robert Bruce and Charles Alexander Bruce, were instrumental in enlightening the British administration in the early part of 19th century about wild tea bushes growing in Assam. Thus they showed the way to a possible alternative source to the cup that cheers but does not inebriate.

The first tea company in the world, the Assam Company, spent almost two decades before demonstrating that tea-growing in Assam was a commercially viable prospect.

According to Dr Pande, in 1899, Indian Tea Association (ITA), Calcutta, appointed Harold H. Mann to initiate research on tea at the Indian Museum, Calcutta. He joined in 1900 and it heralded a new era in scientific research on tea in North East India. Finally, organised research on tea was started in 1911 with the establishment of Tocklai Experimental Station in the loop of the rivulet Tocklai at Jorhat. Since then the research station, popularly known as Tocklai, has come a long way.

For the greater interest of the industry, with the participation and contribution of the India Tea Association, the Tea Research Association (TRA) was constituted in 1964 to take over the management of Tocklai and its outstations. TRA was linked to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and was recognised as one of the national research and development institutions, funded partly by member tea estates and by grand-in-aid from CSIR and the Tea Board.

In recent years, TRA has been linked to the Commerce Ministry and the Tea Board for receiving grants-in-aid from the Government. However, the Tocklai Employees’ Union is of the opinion that with the linkage of TRA to the Commerce Ministry and Tea Board, the quantum of grand and the percentage share of Government in respect of majority of the items has been reduced.

Emphasising the importance of the Tocklai, the Union wants that this station should be declared as a national research institution with the patronage of Central Government, a national research organisation may be constituted on the lines of CSIR.

The objectives of the tea industry: increased production, improved quality, remunerative prices, for the producer and affordable ones for domestic consumer foreign consumer at a competitive rate.

The deftness of the women’s fingers is admirable as they pluck the delicate two leaves and a bud from which the tea is made. The factory is the heart of the plantation. It is here that the magical transformation of the green leaves into the brown-black threads or globules, which one calls tea, takes place.

It was found that shear plucking could be an aid to hand plucking during peak cropping period from July to September. This could increase the pluckers’ productivity by 40 to 60 per cent. The use of plucking machines could increase the productivity further to 211 per cent per manday over hand plucking. Tocklai has also developed harvesting machine which will be put on trial next season.

According to Dr Pande, there are some constraints in the development of tea plantation and industry which need to be tackled seriously. Some of them are limited availability of land for extension in traditional areas, old age of tea bushes (about 43 per cent are more than 50 years old), slower rate of replantation and refilling of existing tea areas. Lack of irrigation facilities, deteriorating environement leading to disturbance in the ecosystem, soil erosion and pest outbreaks, overdependence on agrochemicals, waterlogging and flooding of tea estates, fluctuating prices of tea and lower investment in R&D (less than 0.5 per cent as against 2 to 4 per cent in other industries) also pose serious problems to the tea industry.