The fury of nature has wreaked havoc on the tea industry in Assam and West Bengal, which contributes for over 81 percent of the nation’s total tea production. The region’s tea industry has been severely impacted by the record rainfall and following floods.
In June, Assam had a 27% drop in tea production compared to the same month previous year. Out of the 27, the Brahmaputra valley saw an 11% drop while the Barak valley saw a 16% drop.
According to Dipanjal Deka, secretary of the Assam branch of the Tea Association of India, ‘all the clones of our crops here are neither drought resistant nor flood resistant, so the tea gardens in the region had to face the brunt of the floods.’
On the other side, tea production in the Dooars-Terai tea gardens in neighbouring West Bengal fell by 40% in June, with 21% of that production occurring in the Dooars and 19% in the Terai region of the Jalpaiguri division.
The drop in production could be linked to the 1.5 degree decrease in temperature increase, which led to less average sunshine hours. The temperature drop in June of this year extended the diurnal temperature variations.
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