The Himachal Pradesh government on Sunday announced to start an ambitious plan to double tea production from 10,01,419 kg in 2021-22 to 20,00,000 kg in the next five years in the state, said Agriculture Minister Virender Kanwar.

Kanwar said at present, tea is being cultivated on 2,310.71 hectares on the lower slopes of Dhauladhar mountains in Dharamshala, Shahpur, Nagrota Bagwan, Palampur, Jaisinghpur, Baijnath, and Jogindernagar areas of Kangra district.

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CSK Agriculture University Palampur has planted 800 tea saplings in Krishi Vigyan Kendras/Research Stations at Malan, Kangra, Bara, Berthin, Sundernagar, Bajaur, and Dhaula Kuan to access the scope of tea cultivation in non-traditional areas of the state.

Orchard integration of tea is also being explored towards doubling farmers’ income and offsetting area loss.

Besides, the state government is planning to organise tea festivals in important tourist places like Manali and Shimla in the coming years to promote Kangra Tea among visiting tourists, he added.

He stated that the state government had organized a tea fair at Palampur for the first time in December 2021 in which around 400 tea growers had participated.

An additional area of 5.6 hectares was also brought under fresh plantation during the year 2021-22 and a target has been fixed to bring an additional 100 hectares area under commercial tea cultivation in the coming 5 years, he further stated.

It is worth mentioning here that the tea industry has contributed around 20 crores to the economy of Himachal Pradesh. In the last financial year, the industry had provided direct and indirect employment to around 5,000 people in the state.

The Kangra tea is mostly exported to foreign countries through the dealers in Kolkata and only 10 percent of the tea is being marketed within the state at present and 90 percent goes to the Kolkata auction center. However, around 4,000 kg of Kangra tea was exported directly from Himachal to foreign countries mainly Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, and France during the year 2021-22 and a target has been fixed to export 20 percent of tea production to foreign countries directly from Himachal in coming years.

There are around 5,900 tea farming families in the state and the average land holding of 95 percent of tea growers is less than 0.5 hectares. There are 21 big tea planters having an average land holding of more than 10 hectares while around 237 tea planters have average land holding between 1 to 10 hectares.

The agriculture department has provided one lakh tea plants for infilling in existing gardens and for a fresh plantation for growers at the nominal rate of Rs 2 per plant for general farmers and Rs 1/per plant for Scheduled Caste farmers from its tea nursery at Palampur during the year 2020-21.

A target has been fixed to raise 1.5 lakhs plants in Tea Nursery Palampur during the current financial year to bring more area under commercial plantation.