EMERGING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN TEA PLANTATION----A STUDY OF SMALL TEA GROWERS OF SIVASAGAR DISTRICT, ASSAM

TRODUCTION:-

Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. The discovery of this health drink in china dates back to 2737B.C. The discovery of the plant is ascribed to the Chinese emperor Shen Nong who ruled during that period. The botanical name of the tea plant is Camellia Sinensis (L) O Kuntze.The Chinese people used tea for its medicinal values since its discovery. The commercial production of tea started much later in about 650A.D during the rules of the Tsang dynasty by that time tea had gained popularity as a beverage. A chinese philosopher Lu Yu had written the first book on tea named CHACHING the tea classic in the year 780 A.D . During the 17th and 18th century England imported tea from china through East India Company. This was the monopoly business of the company but from the later part of the 18th century the Chinese authorities raised some objections to this monopoly in tea trade by the East India Company.This resulted in snapping the trade agreement with British in 1833A.D. In compelled the British authorities to think over an alternate source of supply of tea. Incidentally during the same period the possibilities of cultivating tea in India were under consideration of the British authorities of India. Tea plantation in Assam was started in the year 1835 after it was confirmed by the tea committee that tea plants found in Assam were identical to those available in china. This fact was declared by the tea committee on 24th December 1834. This cleared the desk for cultivation of tea in Assam. Initially attempts were made to plant tea with seeds from china. But later on it was found that local variety of tea was much better than the Chinese variety. About 120 number of tea tracts were discovered in different areas of upper Assam in an investigation led by Mr. C. A Bruce up to June, 1839 who was appointed as superintendent of tea forests in may 1836.

Manufacturing of tea was initiated with green leaves plucked from existing tea plants. Manufacturing of tea was supervised by experts brought from china. The first consignment of Assam tea consisting of 12 chests was sent to London in March 1838. This first lot of Assam tea received very good response from brokers and experts. The Assam Company was formed in February 1839 with a capital of $5 lakh divided into 10,000 shares of $ 50 each. It was the first company for cultivation, manufacture and sale of tea in India. The experimental tea plantations of the government were handed over to this company. In the year 1859 another tea companies named Jorehout-Tea Company was formed with a capital of $ 60,000 and gradually plantation of tea picked up momentum Cultivation of tea on a small scale is a usual practice in many tea producing countries like china, Japan, srilanka, Indonesia etc. In china tea was cultivated in family holdings from ancient past. Tea is cultivated on small scale like any other crops. China occupies the first position in the world in so far as the area under tea plantation is concerned. In Japan the entire production of tea is done by small tea growers. Large tea estates area there in Japan the holding size of small tea growers ranges from 0.01hectares to 2 hectare it is noteworthy that the yield rate of tea in Japan is very high in comparison to other tea producing countries of Asia. Tea is cultivated on a small scale also in Srilanka, Kenya, Malawi, Indonesia and Turkey etc. In turkey upper limit of land for plantation of tea is fixed at 4 hectare per grower. In India small tea cultivation was initiated in the Nilgiris of Tamilnadu in 1930s. Later on tea cultivation on small scale was taken up in some other parts of Tamilnadu and neighboring state of Kerala and Karnataka. Presently there are 62000 small tea growers in the nilgiris of Tamilnadu alone producing nearly 78 million kg of tea per annum. In recent years tea is cultivated on small scale in some other states of north east India that is Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Meghalaya. Small tea cultivation is also found in North Bengal and Sikkim.

Small tea cultivation in Assam which is as per tea act 1953 a prior approval from tea board of India was necessary for cultivation of tea in India. This board is responsible to regulate output, quality and marketing of tea. It gives approval on cultivation of tea on virgin soil. Subject to fulfillment of certain

conditions such as proof of ownership of land and size of the holding on which plantation of tea is proposed, proof of suitability of soil for cultivation of tea, proof of financial soundness etc.Before independence of India, certain restrictions were imposed on cultivation of tea to keep control on quantity and quality of tea produce in India. These restrictions stood as hindrance to the growth of small tea cultivation. Gradually these restrictions were eliminated and in 1978, Mr. Soneswar Borah the then Agricultural Minister of Assam had given a cell to the youth of Assam to cultivate tea on a plot of 1.34 hectare (10 bigha). This cell was responded well by the youth of Assam with a modest beginning of 1978. There after growth and expansion of small tea cultivation in Assam is noteworthy. All Assam small tea growers association was formed at Golaghat on 18th October 1978 prior to formation of this association there were a number of other associations of small tea growers in some place of upper Assam viz, All Assam Green Tea Leaf Producers Association of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts, Charaipong self employed tea growers association and Rural tea growers association. Later on all his association was dissolved and small tea growers of Assam were united under one association named All Assam small tea growers association from 1987 onwards. 32 small tea growers were present in the first meeting to form this association in 1987. This founder member had taken initiatives to popularize small tea cultivation in Assam. District and regional committees of All Assam Small Tea Growers Associations were formed in small tea growing areas.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

According to Robert His rich (1985) Entrepreneurship is the process of creating something different with value by devoting the necessary time and effort assuming the accompanying financial, psychological and social risks , and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary and personal satisfaction. From the

above definition it has became clear that entrepreneurship, embraces wide varieties of activities. Small tea cultivation is also an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship plays an important role in the economic development of a country. It is considered to be a panacea for creating wealth, generating employment and providing new and better goods and services. It also helps to improve the level of living of the people, to eradicate regional imbalances, to utilize natural and human resources optimally, it is a dynamic process for creating wealth by assuming risk of business. The all Assam small tea growers association was established during the later part of the 1987 to address the problems of small tea growers of the state. With the formation of this association the small tea growers sector has emerged as the most well organized sector in the agrarian scenario of the state statistics available with the association, about 38,776 small tea growers produce 29.16,47,545 kg of green leaf in a year directly employing 1,11,048 workers in their units and 4,893 employees in the sub staff cadre (2003). Small tea growers are contributing to the development of the tea industry of Assam. According to the survey report and data bank on small tea growers published by state industry department recently. Assam has 68465 small tea gardens. These small tea growers account for about 23% of the state total tea output. According to the tea board of India there are more than 43000 small tea growers in Assam producing about nine percent of the state total annual production. As per the tea board of India information there are 52000 small tea growers in Assam at the end of the March 2009 out of which 3767 were registered with the tea board of India. The small tea growers cover around 65000hectares of land and they produce more than 100 million of tea leaf annually. According to the all Assam small tea growers association there are 65466 small tea growers in Assam as of march 2008 and cover 103298 hectares of land. These small tea growers produce 14185 lakh kgs green tree during the year 2007-08. Most of small tea gardens in the state are confined to upper Assam. Dibrugarh account 30% of the total tea gardens followed by Tinsukia 22%, Jorhat 13%, Golaghat 12%, Sivasagar and other district contain 11%. There are 228 small tea growers in sivasagar district who have registered their name at tea board of India up to 31st march 2008.

Tea is one of the most important plantation crops in India. It plays a very important role in uplifting the socio-economic conditions of the farmers. Small tea cultivation provides not only high profit but also assures a steady income almost for the whole year as remuneration to the planter .Besides providing assured employment opportunity to a large number of unemployed persons in the rural areas, small scale tea cultivation provides the opportunity of self employment to the educated youth. It plays a very important role in uplifting the Indian economy. Small tea farming has played a vital role in strengthening the rural economy. It does not only raise the income of the growers but also creates an employment opportunity to the unemployed educated youth. Small tea cultivation provides the opportunity of transporting business specially based on the transportation of green leaves product by the small tea planters and so called agents are created and they are engaged with the enterprise. India is the largest producer of the tea in the world, accounting for more than 26% tea production of the world. At present there 715 tea companies more than 7000 tea estates, 19738 gardens and more than 65,000 small tea gardens in the country which provides employment opportunity to more than10 lakh persons. During the last two decades small scale tea cultivation in Assam has become popular among the common farmers. It is a significant development in the history of 160 years commercial tea cultivation in Assam. This small tea cultivation playing a vital role in uplifting the socio economic conditions of the growers as well as to the state economy and district economy. Besides providing assured employment opportunity to a large number of unemployed people in the rural areas directly or indirectly, also provides way of self employment to the educated youth which is considered as one of the major contribution to the society.

The financial health of public sector units and governments department of Assam is not sound. This has compelled the government to impose ban on employment. On the other hand, increasing use of computer reducing existing jobs, bank and other departments are trying to reduce work force b introducing voluntary retirement scheme etc. All these have increase the number of unemployed in Assam. To solve this problem government is inspiring self

employment by providing and training etc for establishment of industries by unemployed youth through different scheme. The state government also inspires small tea growers. Government land may be allotted to educated unemployed youth for small tea plantation up to 4 hectares. State institute of rural development comes forward to assist the small tea growers. This institute and and National Bank For Agriculture and Rural development (NABARD) have organizes a few training program for small tea growers. NABARD generally provide loan to small tea growers who are registered in the tea board of India. Small tea cultivation has changed the economic scenario of the some villages in upper Assam. Therefore SIRD is interested to provide help for expansion of small tea cultivation in rural areas. The state government provides the opportunity of the educated unemployed youth, besides engaging family member directly with the enterprise. It is estimated that about 10000 people of the locality are directly engaged in this sector where ex-tea garden workers, excess numbers of workers from the large tea estates, specially the woman pluckers.

In this time we have seen that there is no control of price for green tea leaves by the government, hence the growers are exploited by the factory owners so small tea growers are facing so many problems now a days. Settlement of the land problem is one of the main problems faced by the small-scale tea growers. Small tea growers have faced problem because of non allotment of potta and due to this problem they are deprived from various credit facilities provided by commercial banks and subsidies provided by the tea board. One of the important things is infrastructure and in between small tea growers it is very poor and it creates adverse effect on in production. Many farmers do not undergo any necessary traning provided by various organizations and as a result they fail to reach the desired expectation. Truly the small scale tea cultivation by some unemployed youth to our state is a silent revolution both in agriculture as well as industrial sector. Perhaps since the year 1978 people have been examining the prospect of small scale tea cultivation. It had taken some time to overcome the

preliminary challenges. As the stiff competition with the corporate giants was always there and still there is. Now it has turned in to the common man cultivation as the small land holders are also now taking up tea cultivation as their means of livelihood. Undoubtedly it gradually changes the picture of the burning unemployment to some extent since it has provision for employment of workers, wage earners, medicine suppliers, drivers, mechanics, etc but the key of their fate has remained in the hands of those corporate giants. Small tea growers are always burdened by various problems like permanent settlement of their agricultural land, transportation of their produce and encroachment of their garden by neighboring state in the border areas. Recently the unprecedented decline the prices of green tea leaf overshadowed all these problems.