Experts call for revival of Tripura's tea industry

Experts attending a day-long seminar on 'Development of Tripura Tea Industry - Scope for Speciality Tea' recently, have called for the tea industry's revival as they believe it has a bright future.

The seminar was organised to discuss measures to revive the tea industry.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar was the chief guest at the seminar.

"This seminar will help in increasing tea production of Tripura along with its quality which has been the main point of discussion. Today if we want to capture the market we have to produce quality tea and various resource persons have discussed on this issue. This will surely benefit and boost the small tea growers towards producing quality tea," said Harisankar Debnath, Secretary, Small Tea Growers of Tripura.

Some 12,000 families are directly employed in the tea estates. Since 1994, another 4,346 small tea growers, including 2,483 tribals, are cultivating tea in 3406 square hectare area.

Tripura is the fifth largest among 14 tea-producing states after Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The Tripura Government, in collaboration with the Tea Board of India, plans to boost production by new plantations, rejuvenation, skill development, providing better irrigation and technical facilities.

The state government has said that it is committed to the development of tea industry and the welfare of workers involved in the tea sector.

"We wanted to identify the causes for low prices of Tripura made tea and find solutions to all the problems. And also to see, the land allotted for tea gardens could be productively utilized for development of tea as well as other plants.

India is one of the world's largest consumers of tea, with about three-fourths of the country's total produce consumed locally.

Such initiatives will not only promote tea industry in the northeast India but will also be a major revenue booster.