Introduction:

• Assam is blessed with a high potential for development of resource and demand based industries and produces more than 50 % of the tea produced in India and about 1/6th of the tea produced in the world. Tea industry has contributed substantially to the economy of Assam. About 17 percent of the workers of Assam are engaged in the tea industry. Assam tea industry is India’s largest tea industry and second largest tea production region in the world after China.
• There are around 2500 small tea gardens and the total production of tea in Assam in 2009 was 500 million kgs, compared to the 487 million kgs produced by the State in 2008. Assam's tea production during 2015-16 is estimated at 652.95 million kg, up by 7.61 per cent over 2014-15.
• In fact China and Assam are the only two regions in the world with native tea plants. The scientific name for the tea plant is Camellia sinensis. The Assam variety is known as Assamica. The history of tea industry in Assam can be dated back to 1823 when Robert Bruce, an official of the British Empire discovered tea plants growing wild in upper Brahmaputra Valley.
• In 1838, the first Indian tea from Assam was sent to United Kingdom for public sale. This discovery ended China’s position as the world’s pre-eminent supplier of the beverage.

Tea producing Regions:

• Assam is generally separated into two regions, viz. Assam valley and Cachar. Among the districts of Assam, Dibrugarh district with large area under tea has maintained the highest rate of increase of area under tea with 44.65 percent.
• However Cachar district has reflected negative growth rate of area under tea during the same period (1989-2007). Dibrugarh has the largest area under tea with 33 percent.
• The small tea growers in Assam are now an economic force for the state. According to the “Survey Report and Data Bank on Small Tea Growers” published by state Industry Department recently, Assam has 68,465 small tea gardens.
• These Small Tea Growers account for about 25% of the state’s total tea production. According to the Tea Board of India, “there are more than 4300 small tea growers in Assam producing about nine percent of the state’s total annual production.”

History:

• Tea industry was doing well in the beginning of 20th century and was recognized as one of the major manufacturing industry in Assam with an enormous potential. It boasted relatively better workforce due to its majestic position in those days.
• After Independence, there was a radical change that took place in tea industry as some of the tea estates in Assam came under control of Indians by purchasing maximum shares at the stock exchange or buying the tea estates directly.
• Most of the new buyers were not aware of tea plantation and lack of knowledge of the trade and a desire to make fast money from the business; they ignored the basic requirements of labor essential for plantation.
• They appointed unskilled laborers with low salaries and did not give adequate attention to improve the tea gardens. As a result, the quality of tea was adversely affected and consumers started complaining at the London tea auction.
• Due to unprincipled actions of India owned tea gardens, lesser known tea producing countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Japan began blowing up in the international market. The demand for Indian tea in the international level went down, but some Indian owned tea gardens in Assam priced significantly well in the international market as these tea gardens were given more attention by big agency houses in Kolkata and yielded better result.

Yield:

• The average yield of tea per hectare in Assam has reduced from 1,680 kg in 1990 to 1,593 kg/ha in 2007 showing an overall decline of -0.54 percent, even at all India level tea productivity had negative growth from 1731 kg/ha to 1706 kg/ha during the same period with an overall decline of (-)1.46 percent.
• The tea productivity growth rate of Assam was higher than the national growth rate. It has been observed that although the production of tea depends on the area under tea, it is also affected by factors like old tea bushes, heavy cost of production, unskilled workers, financial constrains etc. Due to fall in exports and slump in the international market, the producers opted to cut production in conventional tea and laid stress on production of quality tea to realize better per unit price.
• Assam tea is not yet officially recognized as a brand or variety of tea by the government due to bureaucratic red tape, depriving the beverage of an exclusive label. As such this industry suffers from an identity crisis in the world market in the absence of official recognition as a unique variety.
• Moreover, a considerable number of tea gardens of the state have gone sick over the period due to age old gardens, scanty rainfall, increasing trend in the cost of production, general fall in the price of tea, rise in the bed of Brahmaputra, frequent pest attacks, lack of infrastructure, modernization, lukewarm attitude of the tea planters to the tea garden laborers and inefficient management.
• The demand of Assam tea is already in recession due to better quality tea supplied by the countries like Sri Lanka, Cuba, Kenya and China. India’s tea market is facing yet another paradox which could be explained in terms of glaring gulf between the price received by producer and the price charged by dealers and retailers mainly because of unregulated market behaviour.

Bio Tea in Assam:

• Presently, the demand for organic tea in the international market is around 3million kg per year and the growth rate is 10 percent per annum. However, the demand for organic tea is likely to be increased incredibly as preference of the people shifting from conventional tea to organic tea.
• Singpho people have been playing a key role in the tea industry of Assam and perhaps they are the first one to have introduced the concept of organic tea in the tea segment of the state.
• The technique used by the Singpho people has inspired more and more youths towards organic tea in Assam and adjoining North Eastern States. Singpho people generally inhabitant in Margherita of Tinsukia District of upper Assam and some parts of Arunachal Pradesh. Recently Singpho community has developed ‘Tea Coin’ (round shape tea tablet).
• The ‘Tea Coin’ can be consumed by merely dissolving in the hot water. The product is sold in the foremost stores of Canada in the brand name of ‘Phalap’ (Tea is known as Phalap in Singpho language).

Problems of small Tea Growers:

• Unorganized growth- Green leaf production from the small tea growers is not able to harmonize with the requirement of tea market. Moreover, the entire production process of green leaf is not properly channelized to tea processing amenities. It was observed in many cases, for tea cultivation, incongruous land is used affecting the quality as well as productivity of tea.
• Land Patta and title- Most of the small tea growers do not have land patta and they are deprived of being registered with Tea Board. As a result, they could not avail the benefit of plantation subsidy scheme and bank loan. Although, there is a provision for issuing provisional registration to the small tea growers with annual patta, normal land, etc. based on certificate holding for tea plantation.
• Technical backup- There is a wide technological gap between trained and untrained small tea growers. Small tea growers may be imparted training in certain areas like drainage, manuring, weed/pest control, pruning etc.
• Ecological Imbalance- The growth of small tea plantation has reported a large-scale ecological problem by way of clearing village wood lots. The commercial forestry (bamboo plantation, etc.) has vanished and crops like orange, pineapple, sugarcane, and citronella have been replaced by tea.
• Climate Change-is bound to have major impact on the tea industry in Assam. Rising temperature, flood, drought and minimum temperature are the factors reducing yields and alternating the unique essence of the most popular drink. The changing taste of Assam tea is a serious concern for the tea growers and the changes will sharply slow down the demand for this variety of tea abroad.

Suggestions to overcome the crisis:

• The tea industry should get modernized with a change in technique of plantation, improvement of infrastructure, encouragement to the electronic tea auction and managerial excellence.
• Arrangement of training programmes shall be made through Tea Research Association and Assam Agricultural University. Advisory services should be facilitated through field visits on practical aspects of cultivation and providing soil analytical service.
• Arrangements for financing self – Help Groups for construction of leaf sheds, procurement of transport vehicles, weighing scales, plastic crates, plucking bags for leaf handling etc. should be made available.
• Production may be the door to economic growth of Assam but marketing is the key to removing economic deadlock. Also to be competitive in the world market the only way will be the strong marketing bond and marketing is the only weapon for Assam to enable to effectively face the problems of tea industry.
• Labor Welfare measures such as drinking water – creation of water point source (with hand pump and platform), proper sanitation and educational stipend for the wards of workers for pursuing higher studies should be undertaken.
• Part of the burden of meeting the health requirements of tea workers should be borne by the state government. Housing subsidy for construction of new houses for workers should be reintroduced and the Indira Awas Yojana scheme should be extended to tea worker lines.
• Green leaf Cess should be temporarily withdrawn. Entry tax on tea related equipment and machinery not available in Assam should be withdrawn. Registration charges on transfer of gardens should be temporarily waived to ensure that no more gardens close down.
• Short term executive programmes (STEPS) for plantation and recruitment of competent and qualified managerial staff are of key importance.

Assam tea has to carry out, what is called ‘niche marketing’ i.e. it must establish a distinct identity of its own. We should be able to build a distinct “Assam Tea” (Made in Assam) brand. Such an effort at the national level would be prohibitively expensive but building up an Assam brand is essential. What is required is a detailed analysis of the market, evolvement of a strategy and a business plan, plus an in-depth study of the supply chain.

The tea industry is very reluctant to recruit management graduates and most of the companies look for ‘social background’ of the candidate in recruiting tea executives. As such, various management programmes should be initiated by the industry as well as by the Government to develop the capabilities of the tea executives. The Assam government is now planning to grade tea factories to determine their quality, to be monitored by an independent certification agency. With the increase of wages of tea plucking workers of the Brahmaputra valley, the decision made is expected to improve the efficiency and reduce absenteeism amongst the permanent workers.