Highlights:
• This sum will be distributed to the Nilgiris district’s
• 13 industrial cooperative tea factories to settle green leaf cost obligations owed to small tea growers
The Tamil Nadu Small Tea Growers’ Industrial Cooperative Tea Factories’ Federation (INDCOSERVE), which is in dire financial straits, has received a special grant of Rs 5 crore from the state government. This money will be distributed to the Nilgiris district’s 13 industrial cooperative tea factories to pay small tea growers’ green leaf costs until April 2022.
Overview
The special grant was approved on the condition that INDCOSERVE and the industrial cooperative tea factories take immediate steps to improve the quality of the leaf procured and collaborate with the Tea Board to ensure that the price set for tea leaves is reasonable. A comprehensive restructuring package/proposal for INDCOSERVE’s operation should also be pursued.
In other news, a lack of fertilizers, particularly urea and muriate of potash (MoP), is wreaking havoc on Tamil Nadu’s plantation sector, as the window for nutrient application has passed due to summer showers.
Tamil Nadu is South India’s largest tea-growing region, accounting for 71.2 percent of total output. However, fertilizer availability is not an issue in the other two plantation states of Karnataka and Kerala.
A lack of nitrogen, a critical nutrient for a vegetative crop such as tea, will cause severe nutrient deficiency symptoms, susceptibility to pests and disease, deterioration in tea quality, and a massive loss in productivity.