Bad weather and pest attacks on tea

Unpredictable weather and rampant pest attacks have left tea planters calculating the losses of the past few months.

Bouts of incessant rain between May and August alternating with sunshine and temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius have led to a loss of production by 10-20 per cent in the Dooars and the Terai.

Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary of the Dooars branch of Indian Tea Association, said: “A drop of 10.36 per cent in production has been noticed in this period. In July this year, an unprecedented rainfall of 47.09 inches was recorded as against 25.87 inches last time.”

“Even during the first fortnight of August, it didn’t change much. We doubt if the losses can be made up by October after which the lean period starts,” said Bhattacharjee.

Equally alarming is the pest attack. A.K. Chatterjee, the manager of Pahargoomia tea estate in the Terai, claimed that the garden has suffered a loss of 10-15 per cent. “And it can’t be compensated,” he added.

R.K. Rungta, manager, Kurti Tea Estate, pegged the loss from pests between 5 and 25 per cent across north Bengal. The pests include looper caterpillar, red spider, helopeltis, thrips and green fly.

Pests and weather combined, planters claim that the estimated loss this year would be around Rs 30 crore. “About 25 per cent of the annual production takes place during this quarter,” one of them said. “Given last year’s figure of 200 million kg in north Bengal, we anticipate a loss of at least 10 per cent of the 50 million kg (produced during these months), which brings it to 5 million kg.” Considering the average price of Rs 60 per kg, the loss will be around Rs 30 crore.

Officials of the Tea Association of India (TAI) sounded equally worried. “The temperature was just right for pests. These grew and attacked the bushes on a massive scale,” said Ranjit Dutta, the secretary of the north Bengal branch of TAI.

Researchers of the Tea Research Association (TRA) however, are more hopeful. “Pest attack and erratic weather have indeed affected the tea gardens, but things are expected to be better in the next few months,” said Pradip Ghosh, the chief advisory officer of TRA, Nagrakata.

Source: The Telegraph