Search on for tea variety that can withstand climate change

As climate change is affecting both quality and production of tea, scientists are testing which botanical varieties of the crop are resilient to climatic pressures.
At Tea Research Association's Tocklai Experimental Station here, a team of scientists has created chambers where they are studying how the 200-odd varieties of tea found in the country would react under different climatic models.
"We are testing the field varieties and we have also created 33 clones so far of the mother varieties. We are testing them all over a period of time to see how they perform under changes in weather," TRA's deputy director Rajiv Bhagat, who is in-charge of the project, told PTI.

By artificially varying the temperature and carbon levels in atmosphere inside the chamber, they are experimenting how the plant would perform in future climatic conditions. They are hopeful of coming out with the results by next year.
In the last 100 years, TRA has recorded a drop of 200 mm in average annual rainfall and an increase in minimum temperature of 1.3 degrees Celsius.
Erratic rainfall has become another issue in the last 30-40 years. The year 2009 was almost a drought while 2010 had double the rainfall. Tocklai station director N Muraleedharan said unseasonal rains cause a decline in production and if the sky is overcast photosynthesis comes down.

While connoisseurs complain of a change in flavour of tea, producers say they are also losing crops.

"About 70 per cent of my crop in a 1.5 hectare area died this year. They were only 20-year-old bushes which could have easily lived for 40-50 years. As a planter it hurts to lose even one bush," says Raj Barooah, director of Aideobari Tea Estate in Jorhat.
Assam accounts for over half of India's annual tea output.
Barooah, also the chairman of Assam Tea Planters Association, agrees that the weather has become erratic, harsh and unpredictable in the last 10-15 years. "Rainfall is no more evenly distributed as it used to be when I entered into the tea business two decades ago," he said.

Incidences of pests and plant diseases have also gone up drastically as a result of increase in temperatures.
Tea plantation needs a moderately hot and humid climate and an excess rainfall in the monsoon months of June-September causes drainage problems.