Tek Bahadur Bista, a farmer from Sakhejung said he would suffer loss in the income by 50 percent due to fall in production of tea leaves after the first flush harvest. “New tea buds are not emerging in tea plants in recent days after the first harvest this year due to long drought and lack of irrigation in the tea farms,” said Bista. [break]
Sakhejung orthodox tea producer Himalayan Shangri-La Tea Producer, which used to produce 7 tons of green leaves daily, is hardly producing 2 tons leaves as tea plants are not producing new buds for last one month.
“After the first flush harvest, we could not pluck fresh tea leaves for the last one month on the back of long drought, which is worse than previous years” said Ram Chandra Nepal, managing director of Himalalyan Shangri-La.
The company annually produces 40 tons of organic tea procured from 41 farmers through 13 tea-producer cooperatives and farmers groups. Plight of Gorkha Tea Estate is also not that different.
Collection of green tea leaves at Gorkha Tea Estate in Phikkal of Ilam has dropped to daily 100 kg this year from 1,500 kg last year. Uday Chapagain proprietor of the company, complained that farmers were facing shortage of organic fertilizers and prolonging drought had affected the production and collection of fresh tea leaves. The tea processor had set target to export 50 tons of organic tea to Germany.
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