State assists only registered smallholders hit by drought

Government plans to assist tea smallholders affected by the drought with replanting are insufficient since allocations are made for only those registered amounting to just six million plants on 480 hectares.

Tea Smallholders Development Authority (TSHDA) officials told the Business Times that allocations are made to assist only 8160 farmers impacted by the drought who have smallholder properties that had in 2017, 2018 and 2019 obtained plants from the authority. The total acreage of smallholder properties is 120,000 H owned by a total of 496,000 farmers.

The registered farmers that have requested for assistance are from Galle, Matara, Kalutara, Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya, Kegalle and Badulla, TSHDA officials said.

However, the industry complains that this assistance is insufficient as the drought had impacted a larger segment of the smallholders. Tea smallholders contribute 76 per cent to the total crop production in the country.

In this respect, the Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners Association President Chandima Wickremesinghe told the Business Times that there is a big impact on the crop this year compared to 2019 due to the drought and the COVID-19 pandemic.

He noted that replanting had not been carried out at the required levels and that this year they expect production to dip to about 60-280 million kg.

If prices continue to rise then since they are higher than last year’s levels they expect about a 10 per cent drop in revenue, he said.

Mr. Wickremesinghe explained that the TSHDA is assisting in the replanting and while the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) had stated they would assist in replanting, this has not happened.

Moreover, he pointed out that the assistance allocated is insufficient since “we have a larger potential if the authorities work efficiently”.

The Tea Board has allocated Rs.150 million from the tea promotion fund to be spent on establishing 500 nurseries that would generate about 25 million plants that could be included into the tea industry by 2021/2022, officials at the TSHDA said.