Climate change sparks tension in tea gardens

Jorhat, Assam: Usha Ghatowar smiles wryly when asked about the pay she earns picking leaves at a colonial- era tea garden in Assam.

“Do you think ` 3,000 is enough when your monthly expenses can be double that?” she mumbles, as she puts on her “jaapi” hat of woven bamboo and palm leaves and takes a sip of tea from a steel mug.

As the women workers around Ghatowar nod in agreement the heavens open — it has started raining heavily in recent days after three largely dry months.

Unrest is brewing among Assam’s tea tribes, whose forefathers were brought here by British planters from neighbouring Bihar and Orissa more than a century ago, as changing weather patterns upset the economics of the industry.

Scientists say climate change is to blame for uneven rainfall that is cutting yields and lifting costs for tea firms such as McLeod Russel, Tata Global Beverages and Jay Shree Tea.

While rainfall has declined and become concentrated, temperatures have risen — ideal conditions for pests like looper caterpillar and tea mosquito to infest the light green tea shoots just before they are ready to be plucked for processing.

Use of pesticides and fertilisers has nearly doubled as a result in Assam’s 800 big tea plantations, known as gardens, and the rising costs are making Indian tea less competitive.

As a result, firms in Assam are resisting calls from activists and student leaders to lift the daily wage of tea workers from about $ 2 agreed to recently, blaming weak prices and the doubling of crop expenses over the past 10 years.

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has sided with the workers ahead of state polls due early next year.

Tea tribe votes can swing results in about a quarter of the seats in Assam, the country’s main growing area, and the BJP has been making inroads.

In an interview to Reuters, CM Gogoi denied an opportunistic motive behind his call for the wage to be raised to about $ 3 a day. “I had warned the tea planters about climate change but they did not take care for a long time,” Mr Gogoi said.