The Tea Board survey of small tea growers in Assam and West Bengal reveals that the majority of them have no proper documents in support of either ownership or lease of the land they use.
In Assam, only 4,773 out of 68,500 small growers and in West Bengal 1,107 out of 22,000 have valid documents.
Registration with Board
Institutional finance is not available to growers without valid documents. Any bank, even before looking at a small grower's loan application, usually asks for Tea Board registration, which is granted on presentation of valid documents in support of the land title.
The Tea Board registration makes a small tea grower also eligible for the Board's various incentive schemes, such as 100 per cent grant for leaf collection, purchase of weighing machine and bags, storage, 50 per cent transport subsidy and assistance for purchase of inputs.
In Assam, the bulk of an estimated 1.2 lakh hectares under small tea growers is government fallow land. Also, in many cases, the size of the holding is less than the threshold of two hectares needed for Tea Board assistance. Many farmers grow tea in their homesteads.
The Assam Government has formed a committee for issuing some sort of NOC (no-objection certificate) to the growers occupying government land. However, the Government has expressed its helplessness regarding forest lands encroached upon for growing tea.
In West Bengal, in 2001, the then government had issued an administrative order declaring June 30, 2001as the cut-off date for issuing NOCs for lands to be used for growing tea. But the order was never strictly enforced. As a result, the number of small growers in the State went up from around 8,000 to more than 22,000. Many paddy fields were converted into tea gardens.
The present State Government, it is learnt, is planning to revive the order to enforce it from June 1.
Mr Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, President, Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Association (CISTA), welcomed the Assam Government's initiative to bestow land rights on growers occupying government land.
West Bengal, he said, must change the cut-off date. “Where will the 14,000-15,000 growers, who have emerged in the last 10-11 years, go? It was a question of livelihood for them”, he said. He also urged the Tea Board to undertake a fresh survey to cover those left out in the earlier survey.
The small tea growers account for an estimated 26-27 per cent of the country's total tea production.
Form SHGs
Meanwhile, the Tea Board, in a bid to help small growers without clear land titles, has urged them to form self-help groups to be registered as societies which, in turn, will be eligible for the board's assistance.
The picture regarding small growers in other tea-growing States such as Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu will be clear once the findings of the survey, currently in progress, are available, said Tea Board sources.