The Hindu Business Line : Tea research body urged to focus on market-oriented research

Kolkata, Sept. 25 Ms Rashmi Sen, Deputy Chairperson, Tea Board, has urged Tea Research Association (TRA) to focus on market-oriented research and address the immediate concerns of the industry.

Speaking at the annual general meeting of TRA here, Ms Sen expressed the view that improving the quality as well as the manufacturing processes of tea and combating the menace of pests and diseases in tea estates should receive more attention in TRA’s research programmes. “TRA should not concentrate on such things as tea candies and tea biscuits, which cannot be marketed commercially,” she observed.

The Tea Board Deputy Chairperson felt that part of the Rs 20 crore, to be provided by the Union Government on the occasion of TRA’s Centenary due in 2010, should be spent on upgrading research work. There was a proposal for setting up a central laboratory, a pesticide testing land and other laboratories. “Although TRA is nearly 100 years old, it is yet to get NABL accreditation,” she said, pointing out that the same accreditation had already been obtained by a much younger Tea Research Institute under UPASI in South India.

Tea Board, she pointed out, was working on a scheme to make a much larger fund available to TRA for its research programmes.

Mr C.S. Bedi, Chairman of TRA, said work was on to replace the decades old CTC machine within a new tea processor, Microniser, being developed by TRA. The machine was under trial now at Tocklai in Jorehat (Assam) and something concrete would materialise by the middle of next year, he said. The machine would revolutionise the tea processing and also benefit both organised tea producers and small tea growers, he added.

Prof Anupan Verma, President of Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, said TRA’s research should also focus on the medicinal value of tea, particularly tea as a health drink.

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