Earnings of Small Tea Growers and Different Varieties of Tea Manufacturing Factories: A case of Maynaguri block in West Bengal of India

The economy of the rural North Bengal is now shining as the common crops cultivation land has been replaced by small tea plantations. Small Tea Growers (STGs) don't possess factories of their own and have to depend exclusively on different varieties of tea manufacturing factories. As green leaves are highly perishable, they are bound to sell as soon as possible after plucking the leaves. The monopoly market players associations in this block take this advantage and compel the STGs to sale leaves in a very low price. Tussle between the STGs and different varieties of tea manufacturing factories over the price of green leaf have always remained a common issue throughout the country. Different varieties of tea manufacturing factories include ‘Set Gardens Factory’, ‘Bought Leaf Factories’ and a single factory run by ‘Self-Help Group’.

In most of the time the small tea growers have to be dependent on the mercy of the bought leaf factories as the Set Gardens factories not always buy the leaves from outside and there is only one SHGs of small tea growers’ factory in India.

Apart from these, the Tea Board of India has also failed in implementing their policies regarding the fixation of price of tea leaves in this case. The fate of the 1.61 lakhs STGs in India is now very uncertain.

In the present study, a deliberate attempt has been made to explore the impact of different varieties of tea manufacturing factories on the earnings of small tea growers as well as the future prospects of STGs in this block. For the purpose of the study, 150 respondents (STGs) have been selected through stratified random sampling method and the pertinent information have been analyzed with the help of SPSS. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are made to avoid the uncertain future of the STGs and to escape them from the exploitative hands of the monopolist.