Nilgiris: Tea production has suffered heavy losses due to frost.

Coimbatore: Prolonged frost and biting cold have severely damaged tea production in the Nilgiris, halting plant growth, reducing yields, and impacting the livelihoods of people across the hilly district. Tea growers say that the unusually harsh frost this season has destroyed nearly half of the tea crop in some areas. “The impact has been far more severe than in previous years. Earlier, farmers would harvest an average of 400 to 500 kilograms of green tea leaves per acre per month. In the last two months, December and January, this has dropped to around 100 kilograms per acre,” said C Manogaran, president of the Small Tea Producers Association of Nilgiris (SPANI). He added that the yield during the same period last year was comparatively better, at around 200 kilograms per acre.
The impact has also affected a group of about 20 small producers who manufacture premium tea, primarily green tea, as a cottage industry from their homes.
Pooling their produce, these farmers sell their tea under a single brand in the domestic market. However, the frost has affected both the quantity and quality of the tea. “Due to the severity of the frost, we didn’t get the quality leaves required for premium tea. I usually produce about five kilograms of orthodox tea a day. Now it has come down to barely three kilograms per week,” said Ramakrishnan Kesalada, a farmer, adding that many leaves dried up even before they could be processed. Since tea is considered a cash crop, farmers do not receive compensation for weather-related losses. Although crop insurance is available, small farmers often avoid it due to high premiums and other complications. Production has come to a standstill in many areas, and farmers are now waiting for new leaves to sprout later this month so that normal operations can resume.
The decline in production has also impacted employment, leaving many people involved in tea plucking and other related activities temporarily jobless. Farmers have reiterated their demand that tea cultivation be brought under the purview of the Agriculture Department instead of the Tea Board, to avail state government subsidies and benefits. However, officials from the Horticulture Department downplayed the severity of the damage. “Due to intermittent rains, the frost did not have a significant impact. Any impact will be limited only to tea plantations around Ooty,” an official said, adding that no formal survey has been conducted so far. The official also blamed farmers for cutting down shade trees in the tea plantations, which help mitigate frost damage, and suggested using sprinklers early in the morning to reduce the impact of the frost.