As the infestation of tea mosquito bug (TMB) (Helopeltis theivora) starts taking a toll on the production, the United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) has sought the Centre’s intervention to control the sucking pest.

Jeffry Rebello, President, UPASI, in a press statement urged the government’s immediate intervention in taking appropriate steps to control the TMB problem in the tea plantations in the country. The severe infestation of TMB seems to be threatening the very existence of the tea industry in both South and North India.

The extent of damage can be seen from the steep decline in tea production in the Valparai tea region from 30 million kilograms in the year 2009-2010 to 16.73 million kilograms in 2021-2022. The decline is almost 50 percent in Valparai region alone. As TMB is spreading rapidly to other tea districts, it may result in heavy crop loss in all the tea districts of South India, Rebello said.

TMB considered a wet weather pest, which was earlier restricted to tea plantations in low elevation areas, has now spread alarmingly to the high elevation tea plantations also, thereby causing severe damage to output while, the cost of inputs and employee wages are on a significant rise thereby threatening the sustainability of the industry.

Furthermore, the affected tea estates are spending more than ₹12,000 per hectare on pesticide application every year to control this pest. However, the control is very poor due to lack of effective molecules available to control this pest, he said.

Limited choice

After the formation of PPC (Plant Protection Code) of Tea Board of India during 2014 many pesticides were removed from the approved list of PPC in order to produce Indian tea safe and make it free from any harmful pesticides. “Currently in the recent PPC version of 14, only seven pesticides are approved for use in South India. Due to limited choice of pesticides, tea growers are not able to achieve effective control of TMB, with spraying involving cost of materials and workers. One possible reason could be resistance build-up in the population of TMB, in spite of several rounds of application of these pesticides,” Rebello said.

Entomologists of UPASI Tea Research Foundation have been evaluating several pesticides that are available in the Indian market and approved by the Central Insecticide Board & Registration Committee (CIB&RC) in other crops cultivated in India. These pesticides are also approved for use by the European Union and have MRLs (Minimum Residue Levels) for tea. UPASI has been representing to the government for approval to use these chemicals in the tea plantations, Rebello said.

UPASI had recently organised a stakeholder meeting at Coimbatore to address the problem. Representatives from Agriculture Ministry, Tea Board, members of UPASI, agrochemical industries and scientists from Tea Research Institutes and plantation companies deliberated the matter in detail.

While an integrated approach on pest management with biological, chemical and cultural control is the long-term strategy to be adopted, approval and extension of label claim for some effective molecules has to be considered immediately. Combined efforts in research with the help of National Institutes such as National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR) and Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru was suggested to address pest problems faced by the tea industry.

India has the second largest area under tea in the world with around 6.37 lakhs hectares. The tea area in north India is 5.36 lakh hectares while south India has an area of 1.01 lakh hectares. Currently, small tea growers contribute 52 percent of India’s tea production with around 2.10 lakh growers spread across West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

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