Assam: TCS Launches New App To Revolutionize Tea Industry

GUWAHATI: Managing a large tea estate is a daunting task as tea planters face numerous challenges of different sorts, especially now more than ever.

It becomes very difficult for managers in large estates to keep a daily track of all the major operations carried out in the lush green gardens.

Be it the timely spraying of pesticides, correct intervals on plucking or harvesting in a proper way, it is not easy to keep a daily check on these crucial activities.

However, tea planters have reasons to rejoice as Tata Consultancy Services have developed an E-plantation application - Digital Farming Initiative (DFI) mobile app for reporting pest disease and other events in real-time.

In what could pan out to be a revolutionary move, seven tea estates in Assam under Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited( APPL) have started using the mobile app.

Notably, APPL, a subsidiary of Tata, has 24 gardens spread across Assam and Dooars.

A senior official from APPL revealed that the application provides a digital platform for various aspects of tea garden operations.

The official added that initially, only the plucking and spraying activities were captured digitally for daily work scheduling, using the TCS-developed DFI mobile app for detecting deadly pest diseases and other events.

The official concluded by saying that all the other field activities have now been on-boarded on the e-plantation platform.

Meanwhile, Dr Sanat Sarangi of TCS delivered a presentation at BATIC2024 which was held recently to celebrate 200 years of Assam tea.

The presentation shed light on the Digital Food Initiatives (DFI) value chain which connects suppliers, government and research organizations, produce markets, and the farming community through TCS' 4A principle (Acquire, Analyse, Advice, and Accurate).

The presentation highlighted the benefits of the E- plantation application. The DFI mobile app will save time and money while ensuring effectiveness across seasons.

The seven APPL tea estates which are currently availing the services of the E plantation application are Powai, Chubwa, Nahortoli, Nahorkutia, Achabam, Lattakoojan and Lamabari.

"The benefits expected are digital record keeping of all field activities/operations which is currently manual," the APPL official informed.

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