Case Studies Of Tea Plantation In Wayanad Environmental Sciences Essay

Case Studies Of Tea Plantation In Wayanad Environmental Sciences Essay Over the past few decades, tea has grown to become one of the most important commodities of India. Tea has become a major commodity in India and is ranked second largest exporter of tea in the world and offers a variety of products from original orthodox to CTC and green tea. Tea is one of the major exporting crops in Kerala. In 2007, the production of tea was 70.287 million kg which accounted for 5.6% of total production in India. The tea is produced in Kerala mainly in Idduki and Wayanad district. The contribution of Wayanad district in tea production in 2007 was 18.8% of total tea production in Kerala while Iddukià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s contribution was 73.3%. After Idduki, Wayanad is the major producer of tea in Kerala. The area under tea production in Kerala constituted about 37137 hectares in 2007 which accounted for 6.4% of total areas under tea growing area in India. Out of this 14.7 production were done in Wayanad district and 74.5% in Idduki district. In the year 2010, the tea production fell by 1.3% over the last year to 966.4 million kg. The tea plantation in Wayanad is done on a very small scale. Most of the organic farming is for coffee. For tea no organic farming is done in Wayanad but good agricultural practices are used which employs limited use of chemicals and pesticides. There are some small cooperatives in Wayanad district where such practices are being adopted. But the production has not been good in last few years. Most of the tea plantations areas are under the ownership of large tea estates like Priyadershi Tea Estate and Arrepatta Meppadi Tea Estate. Tea is a high labor intensive and land intensive plantation crop and requires huge investment. Majority of the farmers are small tea growers and have to depend on large plantations to sell their leaves plucked. Due to fall in prices in last few years, the plantations are under the verge of being lockout. Also the weather condition has not been favoring the tea production. Priyadershi Tea, a g overnment-run estate in Wayanad has been able to increase its production by introducing noon meal for its workers. Under its noon meal scheme it has been feeding mouths of 316 tribal workers, majority being women. The estate was shutdown in 2005 but after being revived in 2007, it has shown improvements in production. Case Study of Organic Farming in Idduki District A local NGO at Idduki district named Peermade Development Society (PDS) which has promoted organic farming in the district has not only confined its contribution at surface level but has provided support in research and technology also. This organization has also provided its aid in research oriented experiments in field of vermiculture and vermicompost. It has set up a modern tea factory. When they introduced organic farming in Idduki district their main objective was to link farmers with markets. The main beneficiaries from this project were small-scale tea producers and their communities. The farming products require timely processing else they lose their worth. Similarly, fresh tea leaves are perishable and must be processed immediately after harvest else they become useless. The market for tea was controlled by big plantations in Idduki area. So, in order to help small-scale farmers with the PDS established consortium that runs its own tea factory and produce organic tea for European markets.