Upasi's tea research foundation releases high-yielding clone

Faced with stagnating productivity of 2,000 kg per hectare (kg/ha) in south India, the Tea Research Foundation (TRF) today released a new high-yielding, drought-tolerant tea clone for commercial production.

“The new clone, termed TRF-5, is superior in quality, has more leaves and can be harvested both manually and mechanically. It can survive dry spell and is suitable for cultivation across southern states,” said TRF director P Mohan Kumar. The TRF-5 is a hybrid product of biclonal progenies of TRI-2025 (female) and Upasi-21 (male).

TRF is the research wing of United Planters’ Association of South India (Upasi) and headquartered at Coonoor. Till now, it has developed and released 33 varieties of tea. It has identified six compatible graft partners to develop new bushes from the TRF-5 clones, he said.

TRF-5 is more suited to replace the aged or diseased tea plant populations and for the Rs -plantation scheme of the Tea Board under the special purpose tea fund (SPTF), Kumar told Business Standard after releasing the variety at the 119th annual conference of Upasi, here on Saturday.

In the first cycle of three years, the new clone will yield 2,455 kg per hectare (ha), 4,535 kg/ha in fourth year and 7,225 kg/ha in fifth year, TRF assistant director R Victor Ilango said.

“Of the five clones we have developed in the past two decades, the TRF-5 has the second highest average yield – 6,126 kg/ha against 7,797 kg/ha by TRF-1, which was released in 2000 for commercial production,” Kumar noted.

The TRF has registered the new tea clone with the Tea Board as an accepted clone for new planting and replanting by small growers and companies. It has started distributing the cuttings to tea estates in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka to raise the plants for plucking as Orthodox or CTC (crush, tear and curl) leaves.