A. Introduction In the world, India is the largest producer and consumer of the tea which accounts approx 27% of world production and about World Trade of 13%. The major production comes from northern India about 70 to 80% (Assam and West Bengal major contributors). In world exports India's share of tea is also drastically decreased due to more consumption in the country itself. To add to the woes of the firms and formers both international market and domestic markets is failing the prices of tea and all these changes can give adverse impact on country's economy so it is very important to identify and overcome the problems faced by tea sectors in India.
B. Literature Review
On earth TEA is being the most consumed beverages which is next to water The commercial production of the tea was started since 1835. The tea production in India had seen a great jump of 304% while it's area is increased about 160% in last five decades and to achieve these milestones the state owners, management, laborers, and government has equally contributed increasing the production. Even by facing the challenge of low labor productivity, high cost of production, seasonal effects, climate change, nutrient management, pest and disease risk, they make consistent maintenance of quality of Tea.
Besides all these India has earned over rupees 4000 crore in 2014 for foreign exchange of tea, not only this India also bought big domestic market, scientific management of soil, and water blocking mechanization, cooperative factories and thus, reducing the cost of production by using renewable energy,value addition of Tea, the tourism and organic production - all these above opportunities had supported Government of India to enhance the Indian tea industry.
C. Research Methodologies and Database
The proposed study is mainly built by the information collected from the various report and junerals present in the Internet which was related to the present problems faced by Indian tea industries and it's possible modification in the policies to overcome these problems.
Indian tea board has announced numerous Policies under the trade rule and regulations. India Tea Board genesis back at 1903 when Tea Cess Bill was passed. This bill monitor the tea exports and their promotion both within and outside the India under this board various committees what is established name as :-
- · Executive committee
- · Tea Promotion committee
- · Labors Welfare committee
- · Development committee
- · Licensing committee for North India
- · Licensing committee for South India
The key objective of these committees was to regulate all foreign trade policy and was trying to stop the declining export and to reverse the trend
The board of trade was made which will play a dynamic role in advertising government on relevant issue with other connected to foreign trade.
C.1 There were some terms of reference which was hold by board of trade like:-
- · To advise the government for preparation and implementation of both short and long term plans for existing export, within national and international economic scenarios and policy measures.
- · To examine the performance of various sectors, identifying the pro and cons, and suggest industry specific measures which to be taken to optimize export earnings.
- · To look after the existing Institutional framework for export and import and to suggest the practical measures for lubricating achievements of desired objectives.
- · To channelize such scheme for optimum use, and to review policy instrument and procedures for import and export.
- To study the further objectives.
D.
Problem and challenges faced by the Indian tea industry.
India being the second largest tea producer in the world is facing the challenges to sustain their tea production and these challenges can be discussed under the following heads :-
D.1 Climatic changes and seasonal effect
Since, we know that Tea is a very sensitive crop and can be damaged with little change in climate. Tea cultivation has specific temperature and precipitation requirements therefore a little change in temperature can be a great threat to reproduction, uneven rainfall, low rainfall or no rainfall in crop prolong the dry spell and sometime flood like situation and increased temperature, etc are the major changes in almost all tea gardens in India, therefore the annual operational cycle is reduced from 9 to 10 months to 8 to 9 months or even lower than that. Climate change also affect the quality as well as quantity of tea production, disease attack and intensity of insect, improper growth of new buds, low soil fertility, change in temperature and climatic condition for the various causes of variation in tea production.
In South India Tea productivity better because almost uniform climatic condition is present but in North area winter is cold there so the seeding process go in dormant stage and productivity goes down, and that's why on the basis of plucking month the prices of tea are decided during the auction.
D.2 Attack of Pest and Diseases
There is annual loss of 10 to 15% in production due to disease and pest attacks in India. Integrated pest management (IPM) practices are not followed in most of the garden this can be the very main reason of this losses. To control pest and diseases of the tree mostly chemical pesticides are being used and sometime over dose of pesticides it applied intentionally or unintentionally to the plants which uplift the risk of higher pesticide Residue as well as environmental contamination, disturbance of ecological balance. Also there is very poor monitoring over the pesticide dose and the interval between plucking and the spray.
D. 3 Low Labor productivity
In North as well as South India, the shortage of labor is a very common challenged which is faced by Indian tea industries and producers. Almost 70 years back in 1950s Industry provides employment to about 0.95 millions people and in present it employee about 1.5 million people directly engaged in Tea Industries and more than 11 million people are getting indirect benefits from tea industry. Tea is plucked mostly by hands and therefore dependency on labors is very much more in tea gardens. Labor cost is also quite height, workers are also engage during the peak plucking season and the current situation in this sector has given enormous reason for a rethink of labor’s productivity in India.
D.4 High cost of production
It is disappointing to know that the wage(labor’s) component to root over 60% of total cost of production excluding input cost of electricity, pesticides, Agro-Chemicals, agriculture fuel all this factor make Indian Tea non-competitive in International markets and it is nearly impossible to reduce the cost of production. Although there are many techniques which are adopted to do so, like longer packing cycle (15 to 18 days) but this results to poor quality of reproduction and gives less price of tea in market. Some cultivars try to cut the cost by postponing the uprooting, replanting and garden modernization. They also take risk to plant long term variability.
Most of the labors which works in daily wages come from the very economical weaker sections of the society and also very far away from their hometown( native place) therefore they need take house on rest, water and shelters for which they ask for more money from the cultivators.
D. 5 Poor nutrient management
In many States application of fertilizer is done without knowing the soil nutrient, Supply capacity, variety and age of their species. Therefore the efficiency of fertilizer is reduced and profitability of tea garden is retarded.
For better tea production the pH of soil should be below 5.5 and the cultivar should keep trying to keep the soil pH slightly acidic.
Tea should be grown in the soil where the acidity is high. In India most of the part tea is grown in low fertility soil and fertilizers becomes the one of the key part of measurement practices. Which to be kept in mind :- Organic manure and fertilizers should be used in high amount, application of Rock phosphate can increase the soil acidity, and hence promoting the good production of tea and use of biofertilizers organisms like Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) can be a very better option.
D.6 Quality of leaf
The gradual fall on quality of tea can be attained by the poor quality of green leaf. Let's take an example of Assam where the more than 33% of tea is produced from the purchased leafs, on this note small tea growers can't offered to purchase high quality green leaf to cultivate tea, so many times the quality of tea remains low. Some cultivars also harvest the tea by using spikes due to shortage of labor workers. And this is the biggest reason of poor quality of green leaf which is harvested from the tea plants.
D. 7 Support from the government
The Indian Tea Industry has seen many ups and downs. The tea production in India is facing very critical issues. Before WTO, Government supports the Tea Industries as required. But the cost of input including energy, rent, power supplies, tools and implements, etc becoming higher year after year. So it can affect the long run of the Tea gardening in India so it is very important to look after this and government should come forward with great Action Plan, schemes and, services to benefit the farmers.
E. Suggestions and possible policies modification to overcome the
problems
To make Indian tea sector more powerful and resilience the following steps can be taken
- · Different stakeholders should take concern effort to increase the productivity of Tea plantation in the country. The strengthening of extension services and to pass the technical knowledge to the small tea growers of remote area and built a great impact.
- · The multi-pronged the problems of production can be overcome by organizing new type of production organizations and ownership structure.
- · The establishment of organizations which can help the small tea production holders by supporting the services like making inputs available at right time at right places.
- · Online platforms can be made available to the buyers and sellers under the government norms ,rules and regulation to make trade easy within the country.
- · Diversification of market :- Away from the traditional markets, this can offer a great scope to boost the Indian tea production.
- · Awareness and promotion of Tea production in the public of domestic market can boost the per capita tip consumption in the country.
- · Quality up gradation, value addition, and diversification in Tea product will help in realization of better price which will improve competitiveness and profitability of Tea Industry.
F. Other opportunities for Indian to industry
The Indian tea is almost out of the competition in whole International markets. In India Tea is widely consumed in almost all section and all sector of the people whether they are rich or poor, young or old, and men or women. India has ruled domestic market but as per capita consumption it is still lower than the other tea consuming countries.
Tea production in scientific manner : The micro and macro climate can be corrected by maintaining the required saves drainage, soil pH, acid range and other agronomic inputs this will minimize the risk of disease and increase the production. Combining the modern and ancient pest management system like Neem based formulation, pheromone traps, mulching ,biofertilizers can reduce the dependency on chemical fertilizers and simultaneously the production of Tea will periodically increase.
Reducing cost by using renewable energy, mechanization of plucking, climate, smart tea production can be a great opportunity for India to stand first rank in global Tea Industry market as a leader.
The tea market in India is being driven
by the healthy production and consumption of the beverage. In 2020, nearly 1.10
million tons of tea was consumed in the country.
G. Key Industry Players in the Tea Market in India
- · Tata Global Beverages Limited
- · Hindustan Unilever Limited
- · Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers Ltd
- · Amar Tea Private Limited
- · Organic India Private Limited
- Pataka Industries Private Limited
H. Conclusion
Indian Tea Industry is giving employment to nearly 1.25% of
population directly and about 10% of people indirectly respectively in India. Indian
tea industry has very good potential and opportunities in domestic market
industry and should focus on value added
product to represent it in International market by resolving the inherent
problem which are linked with another country. Therefore a vary due attention
is required to resolve the hurdles in Tea Industry.
Problems can be overcome by altering the Policies Modifying, the
schemes and by understanding the market by continuous Survey by the government.
In this
internship I learned about the structure and working of the Indian tea industry
and also got a chance to improve my skills of research and report preparation.
I learned the policies, trade schemes, foreign trade policies, import-export of
tea with there production, problems and complications.
And many things
regarding the Indian tea industry which has already been discussed well in the
report.
I. References :-
- · Ind. Jn. of Agri. Econ. Vol. 63, No. 1, Jan.-March 2008 { Tea Industry in India: Problems and Prospects Pramod Kumar*, P.S. Badal*, N.P. Singh* and R.P. Singh**}
- · S.K. Shah and Vipal A. Patel, 2016, Tea Production in India: Challenges and Opportunities, Journal of Tea Science Research, 6(5), 1-6 (doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2016.06.0005)
- · Government of India, Monthly Statistics of Foreign Trade of India, Vol.1, DGCI&S, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, New Delhi
- · International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering, 7(1): 83-93, June 2019 { Pratima Chamling Rai Department of Economics, Balurghat College and Research Scholar, Raiganj University, West Bengal, India}
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