A correspondent
Silchar: The Barak Valley Branch of Tea Association of India (TAI-BVB) had signed an MoU with the Assam University. The formalities were performed on Friday night at the 50th annual general meeting of the TAI-BVB in Silchar. Sushil Singh, the chairman of the TAI-BVB said, the primary objective of the MoU was to promote the growth, sustainability and welfare of the tea industry in the Barak Valley region. Professor Pijush Pandey, the IQAC director of AU said, they would focus on research on various problems, like climate change and uses of pesticides, usually being faced by the Barak Valley tea growers.
Almost all the tea growers attending the conference expressed concern at the constant decrease of production in the last 15 years. Prabir Kumar Bhattacharjee, the secretary general of the Kolkata chapter of the TAI said, while in the Brahmaputra Valley, tea gardens had been recording steep growth in production every year, the Barak Valley region witnessed a complete reverse picture. Sushil Singh attributed the low productivity to ageing tea bushes, high vacancy rate and poor bush frames. “Unfortunately the industry has struggled to keep up with the necessary rate of replanting due to financial constraints,” he explained.
The Barak Valley Development Department Minister Kaushik Rai in his chief guest address, however, said the Himanta Biswa Sarma government had been extending all sorts of support to the tea industry to increase their production. Financial aides in three phases to the tea industry had been disbursed by the state government, maintaining this Rai said, in the first phase Rs 35 crore was released followed by Rs 45 crore and Rs 98 crore in the consecutive phases. Rai further added that the state government had been sincerely trying to develop the infrastructure related to the tea industry.
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