Tamil Nadu - Udhagamandalam   

Tea Board for tea growers' societies

Udhagamandalam: In keeping with this saying “united we stand, divided we fall,” the Tea Board has embarked on a mission to get small tea growers in various parts of the district to form societies.

With this intent, the Tea Board organised a seminar on “Intensification of Society Concept Among Small Tea Growers” here on Friday.

Addressing the gathering, the Tea Board Executive Director, R. Ambalavanan said that while formation of societies is important, total involvement in all aspects of farming activity was more important.

Labour shortage

Referring to the growing problems on account of the increasing labour shortage, he said that they can be tackled to a significant extent if the farmers themselves attend to the routine tea garden operations.

Formation of societies will pave the way for farmers helping one another in various cultivation activities, Mr. Ambalavanan said adding “management is the key word to success.” Everything possible should be done to bring down the cost of production and farmers should start using machines for pruning and harvesting.

Expressing the view that a win-win situation can be brought about only if both the farmers and manufacturers join hands to make available high quality tea, he said that both should make optimum use of the Quality Upgradation Programme (QUP) of the Tea Board and the United Planters Association of Southern India-Krishi Vigyan Kendra (UPASI-KVK).

The time has come for all the tea-related agencies like the Indcoserve, Department of Horticulture, the Upasi, Tea Board and the Upasi-KVK to function as a team.

Subsidies

The Joint Director of Horticulture in-charge J. Haldorai said that subsidies in various forms are being extended by the department and added that routing them through societies would be more beneficial.

Quality

The Director, Contemporary Tea Brokers, Coonoor, N. Sriram, said that high priority should be given for quality.

The Managing Director, Pramas Tea Factory, Prassana, and the Managing Director, Selvaganapathy Tea Factory, Y.A.N. Murthy, spoke.

The Senior Scientist, UPASI KVK, G. Ramamoorthy, welcomed the gathering.

The Project Officer, QUP, A.B. Sivakumar, proposed a vote of thanks.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Tea Board for tea growers' societies
‘Focus on conservation'

Copyright © 2011, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu