Ministry sets up directorate for small tea growers' welfare

The commerce ministry has set up a directorate exclusively to look after the welfare of small tea growers in the country. The directorate, which has been approved by the Planning Commission, will soon start functioning under the aegis of Tea Board.

“This is a very important imperative for the welfare of small tea growers which number in several lakhs. It is important to look after the interests of small growers in our approach to the inclusive growth,” minister of state for commerce Jyotiraditya Scindia said here on Friday.

The Planning Commission has sanctioned 50 posts for the small tea growers’ directorate which will start functioning very soon. It will have a central office and many regional offices at states, he told reporters on the sidelines of 119th annual conference of United Planters’ Association of South India (Upasi).

“We are sure that the Tea Board and associations will give their solutions on issues haunting the small tea growers. We have made a start and we are sure that it will give good results,” Scindia said.

When questioned about the issues of small coffee growers, the minister said that the government will first take lessons from the small tea growers’ directorate and replicate it in other commodities if required and demanded by other plantation sectors.

As the largest commodity plantation in terms of production (976,228 tonnes), the tea sector has 159,200 growers. The area under tea is spread over 580,180 hectares with an average yield of 1,683 kgs per hectare. The southern states (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka) have 84,440 tea growers with an area of 236,814 hectares. The average yield in south India is the highest in the country at 1,970 kgs per hectare.

“Let us first consolidate in one plantation sector. Once we have the learnings from that, if required and if there is demand from other plantation sectors for such a directorate, we would look into it,” Scindia said.

Commenting on the plantation sector’s demands under the 12th five year plan, Scindia said the ministry has recommended not only higher demand for existing schemes but also recommended for starting several new schemes. “We have come out with new schemes like R and D, small growers’ tea directorate and other schemes. Those are before the Planning Commission. I know what the allocation is but I cannot disclose at this stage. For example, Tea Board had Rs 800 crore allocation in the 11th plan period and it will get much higher than that in the 12th plan as this sector provides huge employment,” he said.

The commerce ministry will stress on replantation and rejuvenation of plantation crops during the 12th plan. “We have to make sure that all our plantation sectors increase production in order to meet the growing domestic demand and also increase presence in the export market. It is extremely important to ensure that teething troubles like shortage of labour, mechanisation and R&D will be tackled in the next plan period,” Scindia said adding that he believes in under commitment and over delivery rather than over commitment and under delivery.