The Hindu Business Line : ‘Time to review machinery used in tea processing’

The Board was in the process of reviving an UNDP scheme on energy efficiency, which lay in cold storage. Select estates where energy efficiency has been achieved will be identified to enable them take the benefit under this scheme and enthuse others to follow suit.

The Board has for this purpose collaborated with IIT, Kharagpur and Guwahati, he said.

ISRO scheme

Apart from this initiative, the Tea Board also proposed to implement a scheme with ISRO for using remote sensing and information technology. “The GIS mapping would aid in monitoring the physical progress in tea gardens under the newly launched replantation programme,” he said.

Further, the outlay for improving the health and welfare of plantation workers and small growers has been enhanced to Rs 50 crore during the Eleventh Plan against Rs 6 crore during the earlier plan period, Mr Banerjee said.

Separate cell

“Small tea growers account for 22 per cent of the total tea area and their production cost is lower as compared to the corporate sector.

The sector is highly unorganised, the holdings scattered, and these growers do not get proper technical help on crop husbandry practices. The Board has therefore formed a separate cell under its Development Directorate and it has been proposed to provide common facilities including infrastructure such as input storage, godowns, leaf collection sheds, etc,” he said.