Frost bite, dry weather impacts Nilgiris tea yield

Ooty: Frost-bite and continuing dry weather have affected tea cultivation and yield in Nilgiris. Tea, which is the major plantation crop in Nilgiris provides lifeline to around 60,000 families of small tea growers (STG), who forms the bulk of the farming community in the hills.

This year's scenario is worst as the failed monsoon made things miserable for the tea farmers as the tea industry is feeling the pinch of the wrath of the hostile weather phenomenon.

The government should come out with a special package for STG in Nilgiris, said Mr Thumbur I. Bojan, president, Malaimavatta Siruvivasayigal Nala Sangam. Tea yield has come down drastically as an acre of tea field, which usually brings in 500 kgs of green tea leaf per month now yields only around 85 kgs, he said.
Depleting underground water, frost-bite that almost charred the tea bushes and continuing dry weather are proving to be suppressants for the tea yield that affects the tea economy and the tea farmers, he noted.

Meanwhile, Mr N.Varadarajan, manager at Doddabetta tea factory here, said that arrival of green tea leaves from the farmers to his factory has come down to mere 700 kgs per day from the normal 4,500 kg per day.

“Though many a things had been said about drought relief measures, so far, nothing has come for the tea farmers.  It is high time, the government take steps to support the tea growers, especially the STG, whose livelihood solely depends on tea cultivation,” he noted.