Farmers lamented that tea plants are not giving the yield they used to give in the past due because of the dry weather. In the past, leaves used to sprout again after about 12 days of plucking and farmers used to pluck leaves for as much as four rounds during March and April. [break]
“But this year, fresh leaves took much longer time to sprout and didn´t sprout in many plantations after one round of plucking,” said Mahesh Aryal, a tea farmer of Kanyam-2. This, he said, has almost halved the output of his plantation.
Except for patchy drizzles, Ilam has not witnessed major rainfall since October last year. “The situation was similar last year as well. But good rainfall in March last year had bailed us out from the possible trouble. This year we just weren´t lucky,” said Dipak Rai, a tea producer in Fikkal.
Farmers of the district start plucking leaves from March till November. But it is the good productions of March-April that sets market prices. Exporters generally send the first lot of sample for supplies in May. But with the decline in production of Grade A leaves, farmers fear they might not get sound prices this year.
Nepal Tea Development Corporation (NTDC), the major tea estates holder of the region, too has announced drop in productions by more than a half this season.
“In the past, tea estates in Ilam used to yield as much as 2,000 kg during the period of mid-March to mid-April. But this year, the production has been limited to 850 kg,” said Indira Gurung, who maintains record of productions in the district, of the company.
“Productions would have been better if the fields were wet. But since most of the plantations are done on the slopes of the hills, we can´t irrigate the land. Drought may hit productions severely,” said Madhav Niraula of Kolbung.
Farmers like Bal Kumar Bhandari of Fikkal lamented that tea plants have started to wither due to long spell of drought. “We switched to tea plantation hoping impressive returns. But if the problem continued, we will not be able to make ends meet,” said Bhandari.
More than 5,500 farmers are engaged in tea productions in 16,420 hectares of land in districts like Ilam, Panchthar and Tehrathum, according to National Tea and Coffee Development Board. There are more than 4,500 tea farmers in Ilam alone.
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