Guwahati, April 25 NNN: Tea planters in Assam may find problem to enjoy the developmental schemes under Tea Board of India.
\nAccording to sources, the tea planters in Assam are \u2018landless\u2019. However, these landless tea planters plant tea on acres after acres of land provided by the government.
\nRoughly 75,000 small tea growers in Assam are not eligible for the developmental schemes under the Tea Board of India as they do not possess land ownership documents despite having been allowed to cultivate on government land for years.
\nExecutive director of Tea Board for the Northeast, Mr Rakesh Saini said while there are some 80,000 small tea growers in Assam, only 5,000 of them have been able to register themselves with the Board and take advantage of various benefits.
\n\u201cA tea grower has to produce several documents including land ownership papers in order to register with us and avail the benefits of our schemes. But with the majority of growers continuously deprived, the Board has now relaxed the procedure and has started accepting revenue payment receipts against government land too,\u201d Saini said.
\n The small tea farms in Assam cover about 1.20 lakh hectares of land \u2013 mostly government fallow land \u2013 and contribute up to 28% of the state\u2019s tea output. Assam alone produces more than 50% of India\u2019s tea.
\nSmall size of land holdings is also responsible for farmers getting deprived of certain Tea Board schemes, Saini said. \u201cWhile it requires not less than 0.1 hectare for a tea farm to become viable, people are growing tea even in smaller plots in their homesteads. This makes it difficult for the Board to cover them under various schemes,\u201d he said.
\nWith this problem in view, the Tea Board has now also come out with a scheme to encourage small tea growers to form self-help groups among themselves. \u201cThis will help them avail the schemes as well as cut down transportation and other costs. Moreover, they will also have a collective power to bargain for better prices from the factories and bigger gardens that buy green leaf,\u201d Saini said.<\/p>\n\n