Tea farmer Parbat Dangi of Jhapa is used to facing regular shortages of chemical fertiliser, but this year things are especially bad. He does not have a grain of fertiliser to apply on his 10-bigha tea garden in Haldibari in Nepal’s eastern Tarai plains.
Dangi and scores of other tea producers who haven’t been able to get chemical fertiliser know very well what to expect—reduced output.
Nepal’s Rs5-billion tea industry, which is one of the key foreign exchange earners for the country, is going through hard times.
Tea farmers in the country’s eastern region have been facing acute shortages of urea, one of the most important sources of nitrogen.
The growers are worried because poor harvests due to lack of nutrients means reduced income for them, and life will become that much harder.
The government removed subsidies in the tea industry three years ago. Even then, tea producers have not been able to obtain the vital plant nutrients.
“Lack of chemical fertiliser will not only hit output but also quality,” said Dangi, who has been farming tea for the last 25 years. He has been facing fertiliser shortages every year, and he says things have worsened in the past three years.
Some farmers have bought contraband fertiliser brought across the Nepal-India border. “But it’s not easy, and it is very expensive,” said Dangi.
Nepal produces more than 25,000 tonnes of tea annually, according to the National Tea and Coffee Development Board. Of the total production, crush, tear and curl (CTC) tea makes up 19,000 tonnes.
Tea is one of the major exportable cash crops. The country earns more than Rs5 billion annually from tea production.
“The situation in the tea sector is bleak,” said Suresh Mittal, chairman of the Nepal Tea Producers Association. “Without chemical fertiliser, the plants won’t produce fresh leaves.”
Nepal grows two types of tea: Camellia assamica for CTC tea which grows at lower altitudes and in the hot and humid plains of Nepal, primarily in Jhapa district. This tea accounts for almost 95 percent of domestic consumption owing to its lower cost of production.