The Hindu : Business : New package for small tea growers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 22, 2004

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New package for small tea growers

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 21. A "Small Growers Development Agency'' for the tea industry would be set up soon and a special package for this sector, utilising the Re. 1 a kg additional excise duty on tea, would be taken to the Union Cabinet for approval, the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath, said today.

At a specially convened meeting of members of Parliament representing tea growing regions here, Mr. Nath said the modalities for the development agency under the Tea Board would be finalised soon. There were around 1.23 lakh small tea gardens spread over all the traditional tea growing States of India, besides the non-traditional north-eastern States and Orissa and Bihar where tea cultivation has been introduced in the recent past. Together, these small gardens represented over 98 per cent of all growers with a share of over 21 per cent in tea production, he added.

As for the special package, the Minister said this would be utilised largely for replantation and rejuvenation of old tax bushes. This package would be finalised after consultations with the chief ministers of the tea growing States and would also incorporate suggestions from Members of Parliament, Mr. Nath said. Emphasising that a holistic view of the problems of the tea industry arising out of the decline in prices, low productivity, proper export thrust and the like, the Minister said a comprehensive long-term policy for Indian tea was necessary and not piecemeal solutions to the immediate problems.

During the discussions, members raised issues like low productivity, review of Plantation Labour Act, quality upgradation and export-import management for the tea sector. They pointed out that tea was one of the important plantation crops, providing employment to more than one million workers.

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