Pre Budget demand: Tea sector urges for agricultural benefits

SILIGURI: Small tea growers, who contribute up to 35% of the nation’s output of the commodity, have urged finance minister Arun Jaitley to propose measures in his forthcoming Union budget to give them benefits such as bank loans and subsidies that are provided to the plantation sector.

“Deprived of government support, small tea growers are under an extremely insecure and vulnerable situation, having no control over green tea leaf prices or input costs,” said BG Chakraborty, President of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Associations, an apex body of 2 lakh growers from 10 states.

Over 1 million small tea growers in various parts of the country produce highly perishable green tea leaves. However, they are not considered farmers and not entitled to agricultural loans from banks or subsidies given by the Indian Tea Board, said Chakraborty. Fertiliser is another major issue.

“Agriculture departments of tea-producing states do not include fertiliser demand for tea as officially this plantation is not considered agriculture. Thus, the indented volume remains lower than the actual combined need of tea and other agriculture crops, generating an artificial crisis that in turn forces planters to procure fertiliser at 30% to 40% higher prices from the open market,” he added.

A parliamentary standing committee on commerce had stated in a report that the problem of increased cost of fertilisers with no subsidy benefit is one of the main factors behind less productivity and also high cost of production of tea. “The Committee would like the department to ensure that fertiliser subsidy is available to growers,” according to the report.

The entire tea sector needs about 300,000 tonnes of NPK fertiliser per annum, a fraction of the total national demand of about 26 million tonnes.

“We are requesting the finance minister to look into these issues while preparing his budget proposals,” Chakraborty said. Many planters from the organised sector have also supported these demands.