Dibrugarh, Sept 15: Assam’s small tea growers, who contribute nearly half of India’s tea production, are staring at ruin as plummeting green leaf prices and soaring input costs erode their livelihood.
Despite being the backbone of the industry, growers—who typically own less than 25 acres—say they are unable to survive. Green leaf prices, which touched a peak of ₹52 per kg, have now plunged to as low as ₹12–15 in several districts, far below the production cost of ₹25–27 per kg.
On Monday, members of the All Assam Small Tea Growers’ Association (AASTGA) staged a protest outside the Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner’s office, decrying the collapse in prices.
“Our demand for a minimum sustainable price (MSP) has been ignored. We are facing complete ruin. When it costs us ₹25–27 to produce one kg of quality green leaf, how can we survive selling at ₹15?” asked Rubul Hatibaruah, president of AASTGA.
He added, “We are peaceful farmers driving Assam’s green revolution, but our future is now in darkness due to the drastic fall in green leaf prices.”
A status paper on the small tea sector in Assam, released by AASTGA and the All Bodoland Small Tea Growers’ Association (ABSTGA) with support from the Indian Tea Association and Solidaridad Asia, underscores the gravity of the crisis.
“Small Tea Growers represent the most vulnerable segment in the tea value chain. Their vulnerability is compounded by limited landholdings, lack of access to capital, and insufficient technical and managerial skills,” the paper notes.
The study highlights that around 92% of growers sell their green leaves to Bought Leaf Factories (BLFs) through agents. Prices are typically set by BLFs and agents, often disregarding the Price Sharing Formula (PSF) mandated under the Tea Marketing Control Order (TMCO), 2003, which requires factories to pay a fair share of auction revenues to growers.
“Socioeconomic factors also push STGs toward agents, since access to institutional credit remains limited. In the absence of transparent price tracking, growers often realise sub-optimal returns,” the paper adds.
With costs of fertilisers, fuel, and labour rising, thousands of small growers—many of them educated youth who invested their savings into tea cultivation—say they are now unable to even cover basic expenses like wages and farm inputs.
“The government must step in immediately to regulate green leaf prices, or Assam’s small growers will abandon tea cultivation altogether,” Hatibaruah warned.
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