Climate change has begun to show its effects on weather, crop patterns, and production as average rainfall declines and the distribution of precipitation becomes more uneven.
Tripura’s tea estate, Manu Valley, which is located in district Unakoti, showed a reduction in its production of tea by at least 3 lakh kilograms since 2022. An official said it has produced only 21 lakh kg in 2024 against 22 lakh kg produced in 2023 and 24 lakh kg produced in 2022. Tripura’s total annual tea production is 90 lakh kg.
The Manu Valley tea estate contributes to around one-fourth of the state’s total tea output, but with its production gradually declining, especially in the last three years, the future of the estate is uncertain.
This has forced its management to stop producing green tea, and instead focus on the orthodox variety, the official informed.
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The estate’s manager, Prabir Dey, blamed climate change for the decline in production of tea. “The climate change over the past few years appears to be a major challenge for the future of the garden. The average rainfall and uneven distribution of precipitation have affected production in the tea garden”, he said.
Drawing attention to the gradual but significant change in rainfall patterns, Dey said tea gardens would receive rainfall from January or February onwards around five years ago, but now there was no rain in sight until April.
Excessive rain in May and June, on the other hand, prevents the normal growth of tea bushes.
“An evenly distributed rain is required to grow bushes, which is not witnessed nowadays. This is one of the big concerns for the tea garden’s future,” he added.
The tea garden, spread around 318 hectares, has around 40 lakh tea bushes. But, an average of two per cent of the bushes die naturally, prompting the estate managers to replant 5 to 10 hectares each year to fill up the gap.
“Replanting is necessary for the survival of any tea garden”, he said.
Another malady affecting tea production is a shortage of skilled labourers, with the total manpower decreasing from 900 registered workers to 300 in recent times, said Dey, mostly owing to low wages.
With daily wages being as low as ₹204, apart from PF (Provident Fund), bonus, gratuity, medical allowance and free ration to the family, the labourers opt for MGNREGA to earn better.
The only alternative that tea estate managements have now adopted is the introduction of plucking machines to collect tea leaves. The Manu Valley, for instance, has procured 50 plucking machines.
However, Dey says machines are no match for manual plucking.
“Manual plucking is the best option for producing good quality tea. We have imparted training to around 100 tribal villagers for plucking of tea, but still there is a gap in skilled manpower,” he said.
Despite production costs rising each year, the prices at auction markets remain “stagnant”.
“At present, the selling price of tea produced in Tripura stands at 206 per kg, while the production cost per kg is over ₹180. There is an urgent need to recheck the things in the tea industries”, said Dey.
To make matters worse, the government’s decision to roll back transport subsidies some years ago, has added the tea planters’ woes.
“In Assam, planters get a subsidy of around ₹10 if they make green tea, while such provisions are negligible in Tripura,” informed Dey.
To counter this, it would be prudent to set up an auction centre at Agartala, Dey advised, as it would negate the need to transport finished tea to either Kolkata or Guwahati.
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