Comments
Small tea growers have urged Commerce Ministry and Tea Board to launch a massive pruning subsidy scheme to augment the productivity of the bushes.
“We have stressed that at least 25 per cent of small growers’ area must be pruned annually to inject the necessary yielding skills in the bushes. This would involve significant labour and plant caring cost and the concomitant loss of income until the pruned bushes come to yielding stages. Hence, we have appealed for a subsidy to the growers to support their timely pruning activities,” former member of Tea Board and President of Small Tea Growers’ Association of Southern India S Ramu told BusinessLine.
“We have requested Tea Board to dovetail this into the new Tea Development and Promotion Scheme for small-scale sector entailing an outlay of ₹200 crore. We have also sought massive replantation of old tea bushes, supply of subsidised fertilisers, setting up of micro and mini tea processing units, irrigation facilities, assistance for transporting green leaf and establishing leaf sheds,” he said.
“This scheme is valid till March 31, 2017. So, we have urged Tea Board to hasten the formation of the nearly 4,000 societies required to cover the two lakh small growers in the country,” Samir Roy, long-time member of Tea Board and President, National Federation of Small Tea Growers of India, said.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.