Growth and instability in area, production and yield of tea in India

The study was carried out with the objective to examine the growth and instability in area, production and yield of tea in major tea growing states of India namely; Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. The study is based on secondary data collected from Tea Board of India for the period 1990 to 2017. Growth rates and instability index were estimated using Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) and Cuddy Della Index respectively. The total area and production of tea in India was 577.48 thousand ha and 1321.76 thousand tons respectively in 2017. About 80 per cent of tea production in India comes from Assam and West Bengal states. CAGR of production of tea was 2.23 per cent in India during-the study period with significant growth rate in area (1.44 %) and yield (0.76%). The instability in yield was high at 6.42 per cent than area (1.52%) and production (0.79%). State wise growth rate of production was positive and significant in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka whereas positive but non significant in Kerala. Instability index was high for yield than area in all the selected states.