Himachal govt to provide 50% subsidy on tea-plucking machines, equipment

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to offer 50 per cent subsidy on machines and equipment used to pluck tea leaves to provide relief to the state's tea industry.

Small and scattered land holdings, high cost of labour and production, low productivity levels, and not enough tea auction centres are some of the factors hindering tea development in the state, people associated with the sector said.

The move is expected to benefit about 5,900 tea growers in Palampur, Baijnath, Dharamshala and Kangra areas in Kangra district, Jogindernagar and Karsog areas in Mandi district and Bhattiyat in Chamba. The landholding of 96 per cent tea growers is less than 0.5 hectares.

Earlier, tea growers were not covered under the agriculture tools scheme as equipment used for tea cultivation were different from those used for other crops, Agriculture Secretary Rakesh Kanwar told PTI on Monday.

"Now, we have included them and they would get a subsidy for acquiring a certain set of equipment, including tea-plucking machines," he said.

This is for the first time that such a subsidy is being given on tea machines. Budget has been allocated for subsidies on tea-plucking machines and other equipment and guidelines are being prepared, technical officer, tea, (Kangra) Sunil Patial said.

The subsidy for double men plucking machines is 50 per cent, up to a maximum of Rs 80,000, while for single man-operated machines the highest amount will be Rs 40,000.

A provision has also been made for providing battery-operated machines for small growers.

Facing a challenge to revive 53 per cent -- about 1,200 hectares -- of abandoned and neglected areas under tea cultivation, the agriculture department is distributing plants to farmers, while new plantations are being done in Jogindernagar, Palampur, Dharamshala, and Jaisinghpur.

Officials said the total area under tea cultivation is 2,311 hectares, of which 1,096 hectares are well maintained, while 1,210 hectares are abandoned, uprooted or converted into dwellings, according to a survey in 2013.

The average annual tea production in Himachal Pradesh is about 10 lakh kg, of which 4,000 kg tea is exported directly from the state to Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. Small tea growers contribute 59.2 per cent of the total production.

There are four cooperatives or government factories in the state and 35 individual manufacturing units sell 90 per cent of the tea produced at the Kolkata auction centre at an average sale price of Rs 160 per kg.