Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has launched an ambitious project to double tea production in the next five years.
Kangra district and parts of Mandi including Jogindernagar area is historically known for production of finest varieties of tea grown since the British time.
Himachal's annual tea project has already crossed the 10,01,419 kg mark during the year 2021-22 and a target has been fixed to achieve tea production of around 20,00,000 kg by the next five years in the state said Agriculture Minister Virender Kanwar here on Sunday.
At present tea is being cultivated in 2,310.71 hectares of areas in the lower slopes of Dhauladhar mountains in Dharamshala, Shahpur, Nagrota Bagwan, Palampur, Jaisinghpur, Baijnath and Jogindernagar areas.
Himachal Agriculture University, Palampur has planted 800 tea saplings in Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Research Stations at Malan, Kangra, Bara, Berthin, Sundernagar, Bajaura and Dhaulakuan to access the scope of tea cultivation in non-traditional areas of the state.
"Orchard integration of tea is also being explored towards doubling farmers' income and offsetting area loss," the minister said. The state government also proposes to organise tea festivals in important tourist places like Manali, and Shimla in the coming years to promote Kangra tea among visiting tourists. The state govt organized a tea fair at Palampur for the first time in December 2021 in which around 400 tea growers participated.
An additional area of 5.6 hectares was also brought under fresh plantation during the year 2021-22 and a target has been fixed to bring additional 100 hectares area under commercial tea cultivation in the coming 5 years.
The tea industry has contributed around Rs 20 crore to the economy of Himachal Pradesh. during the last financial year providing direct and indirect employment to around 5,000 people in the state, Kanwar said. The Kangra tea is mostly exported to foreign countries through the dealers at Kolkata. Only 10 percent of the tea is being marketed within the state at present and 90 percent goes to the Kolkata auction centre. However, around 4,000 kg of Kangra tea was exported directly from Himachal to foreign countries mainly Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia and France during the year 2021-22 and a target has been fixed to export 20 percent of tea production to foreign countries directly from Himachal in coming years.
There are around 5,900 tea farming families in the state and the average land holding of 95 percent of tea growers is less than 0.5 hectares. There are 21 big tea planters having an average land holding of more than 10 hectares while around 237 nos of tea planters have average land holding between 1 to 10 hectares.
The agriculture department has provided one lakh tea plants for infilling in existing gardens and for a fresh plantation for growers at the nominal rate of Rs 2 per plant for general farmers and Rs 1 per plant for Scheduled Caste farmers from its tea nursery at Palampur during the year 2020-21 and a target has been fixed to raise 1.5 lakhs plants during the current financial year to bring more area under commercial plantation.