‘Double trouble’ spells crop loss for Assam tea gardens

COVID-19 spread among plantation workers and drought-like situation before pre-monsoon showers are main factors, a planters’ association said

The ‘double trouble’ of COVID-19 infection among plantation workers and drought-like conditions has made tea estates in Assam suffer an estimated crop loss of 60 million kilograms. Spells of pre-monsoon showers have made planters heave a sigh of relief but the “damage has already been done”, the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) and Bharatiya Cha Parishad (BCP) said following a survey across plantations. This is the second successive year of massive crop loss. The hasty COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 saw most of Assam’s 803 major estates and more than 1.70 lakh small tea gardens losing 78 million kg of tea leaves, Tea Board of India’s data showed.