Stress on quality tea for growth

Silchar, Jan. 31: Tea Association of India president Shashank Prashad today underscored the need to produce quality tea for the industry to thrive, particularly in the CTC tea-producing Brahmaputra Valley and the Cachar region.

He was speaking at the 38th annual general meeting of the Barak Valley branch of the TAI here today.

The Inter-governmental Group on Tea, an international lobby, in its ruling in China last year, had said there should be no expansion in the tea-producing areas worldwide, particularly in the Brahmaputra Valley and Cachar region.

Against the backdrop of the ruling, Prashad said the tea plantations in the Brahmaputra Valley and the Cachar region should focus on a qualitative increase in the productivity of land and labour.

The TAI president attributed low land productivity as a root cause for sickness in the tea plantations. He urged the planters to reorient their strategies to produce quality teas.

Prashad underlined the need to weed out complexities in the procedural formalities and inordinate delay in the sanction of funds by the Centre under the Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) scheme.

He thanked the Centre for amending the loan terms under the scheme by including the Cachar gardens within the ambit of loans with heavy subsidy for the rejuvenation of the old tea bushes.

From The Telegraph