The drought has been affecting orthodox tea farms of Ilam for the past three years. Last year, Dambar Katuwal, a tea farmer in Kanyam, was able to pluck the buds only in the third week of March because of lack of rain. “This year it is going to be worse,” he said.[break]
Tea farmers in Ilam usually pluck buds from tea plants beginning mid-March. Buds nipped at this time of the year are considered the best. That´s why tea samples that most of the industries send abroad come from this lot. But with drought affecting the farms, farmers are worried.
Ilam saw very little rain this winter. “It was so little that it was not even enough to wash away dust gathered on top of tea leaves,” Dipak Rai, a tea farmer of Fikkal, said. Since tea plants are grown in hilly areas, it is not possible to irrigate lands. The result: buds are regenerating.
Usually, the regeneration process of buds stops after plucking them three to four times in a season. “But right now buds have stopped growing after plucking them once,” said Punya Dhakal, manager of Kanyam Tea Industry, who is selecting plants grown in damp areas to pluck buds. Buds usually regenerate after 10 to 12 days.
Farmers in Jhapa, where low grade CTC tea are grown, are facing similar problems. Murari Pokharel, a farmer of Prithivi Nagar in Jhapa, for instance, was able to collect 400 kgs of tea leaves in one month period from mid-February to mid-March. “If there had been no drought, I could have gathered 2,000 kgs of leaves,” he said.
As drought has started creating havoc in Ilam and Jhapa, tea plants are also gradually drying and losing immunity power.
“Although there has been no outbreak of diseases so far, prolonged drought can affect plants with diseases like ´sindure´,” Dhan Bahadur Rai, a tea farmer of Fikkal, said.
More than 7,500 farmers have planted tea in over 16,400 hectares of land in Ilam, Panchthar, Jhapa, Terhathum and Dhankuta, according to Tea and Coffee Development Board.
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