A "storm in the tea cup"?- Indian tea growers' woes!

A Indians have this habit of depending for every thing on the government and the farmers are no exception. Whether there is a market slump or depression of crop prices, they run to the government for getting subsidies to compensate for their likely loss. Latest to cry hoarse about market turbulence vis-a-vis prices are tea gardeners who claim that due to lower prices being realized they are under financial stress making their operations non-viable. It is true that keeping in steps with global market dynamics, prices of all commodities, especially those being exported, cannot escape wild swings in market prices but they do not complain when they reap windfall profits during periods when global prices go up through the roof! in a free economy profit or loss is influenced by consumer demand and supply situation and government has a limited role to play in ensuring that such situations do not cause permanent damage to the sector concerned. There is some substance in the argument of tea planters that historically government has forced on them some social responsibility for better welfare of the plantation workers and enforcement of such laws must be relaxed at times of distress. Here is a take on this issue as orchestrated by the industry.  

"Tea prices in South India are at unviable levels, with the average price during the year 2014 up to September dropping to Rs 85 a kg from Rs 105 during the corresponding period last year. At the same time, wages have gone up between 9 and 19 per cent in the three tea producing southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala," Vijayan Rajes, president, United Planters' Association of Southern India (Upasi), said. The increase in wages, which has no linkage to productivity, coupled with spiralling costs of other inputs such as fertilisers, has crippled the tea plantations and they are on the verge of collapse, he said. Rajes said the co-relation of wages and the price level was an easily accessible health indicator of the tea industry. When the daily wage in Tamil Nadu was Rs 8.20 in 1980, the average price was Rs 12.66 a kg. The equation gradually changed and in 1995 both were almost on a par — the daily wage at Rs 39.88 and the average price at Rs 41.25 a kg. "If one indexes it on a scale of 100 with 1995 as the base, the wage in 2014 has gone up to Rs 528 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 485 in Kerala and Rs 681 in Karnataka whereas the average price is at Rs 207. In addition to the basic wage, the organised sector spends an additional 75 per cent for discharging the obligations of social costs. Central and state governments are yet to provide support for the sustenance of tea plantations," Rajes said. There are around 70,000 small and marginal tea growers, with a land holding of approximately 49,000 hectares in South India depending wholly on tea. Almost half of South India's tea production is contributed by this segment with the tea leaves supplied to the Bought leaf factories. During the period from January to August 2014, South India's tea production stood at 158.49 million kgs compared to 147.73 million kgs, showing a year on year increase of 7.3 per cent. During 2013, the production stood at 241.79 kgs, a marginal growth of 1 per cent. Plantation sector is additionally burdened with social costs providing housing, medical, educational and other infrastructural facilities to the huge population it supports, which in the normal course is provided by the local administration and the Government for the local population. While the large amounts are saved as the basic civic amenities to the estate population are provided by the estate management, no concessions are given to taxes and other levies. The recommendations and assurances given by many expert Committees for reimbursing part of the expenses incurred for social costs still remain in paper, Rajes added."

Of course even in a wealthy country like the US farmer subsidies are part of the government policy and there is even an anachronism in that farmers are paid money for not cultivating the land to prevent surplus production and consequent market glut causing price depression! Therefore government has a responsibility to ensure tea planters do not suffer too much forcing them to close their operations due to mounting losses. It is here where government needs to have a mechanism to counteract such times of distress which may be of a temporary nature. After all India is the major producer and exporter of tea in the world after China and it is in the interest of the country to see that no major dislocation is caused by occasional economic problems which may be just a passing phase.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

DOES THE ELEPHANT HATE CHILLIES? APPEARS SO

The old saying that necessity is the mother of invention has repeatedly been proved by various true life stories on innovative achievements in human history. Here is another example of human mind driven by adverse conditions came up with answers which are entirely local in its origin. India is in the news lately for a wrong reason because of the evolving man-animal conflict which is intensifying day by day with the governments, Central as well as at the state level, looking on helplessly with no clue to find a practical solution. Conceded Indian population is growing fast and people looking for a tolerable life are intruding into forest areas disturbing the ecosystem drastically forcing the original "residents" viz the animals to foray into human habitats in search of water and food. The fact that forests are being destroyed for economic and social reasons cannot be denied and animals cannot be blamed for this periodic reports of their straying outside their habitat. In spite of many forests being covered under the protected National Park policy, poaching of animals like elephants, rhinos, tigers etc continue unabated in the country. Looked from a human perspective the recent strategy used by Coffee planters in using Chilli powder to repel Elephants from transgressing into their plantations can be justified and may be preferable to killing them as some do with guns and other lethal means. Here is a narration of the strategy used by these planters in Karnataka to reduce Elephant menace in their plantations. 

"Even as the elephant menace has increased in Siddhapura limits off late, the coffee planters have resorted to a new idea to keep elephants away from coffee plants. Taking clue from a workshop conducted by Dr Rudra from Assam who is engaged in researching on elephants, some of the coffee planters have now hung pepper sacks soaked with chilly powder on the fences around the coffee plantations. Dr Rudra hadigital device for stopping food wasted conducted a workshop for planters at Bhuvanahalli Estate in Karadigodu village near Siddhapura, where he furnished information about the new experiments to coffee growers. According to the experiment, the pepper sack will be completely soaked in the vehicle oil after which chilly powder will be applied on the sack. These sacks will emanate strong odour which will remain for over 20 days. The strong smell cast effect on elephants, thus keeping elephants away from plantations. Addressing the workshop, recently, Dr Rudra said that the experiment is cost-effective and could be made use by any planter. Farmers in Assam too were badly affected due to elephant menace as Assam shelters large number of elephants.  But, the experiment has caused much relief to farmers, he said. However, he felt that the experiment will be more effective if Bhoojalki chilly available at Assam is used for the purpose as the chilly is more strong than the normal chilly. Speaking to Deccan Herald, Assistant Conservator of Forest Kariappa said that the Department is observing the experiment made by planters in the region and are looking forward to what extent the experiment would be a success.  The Department will make attempts to get chilly from Assam, if the experiment proved useful, he said.

Chilli will not do any permanent damage to the animals by just sniffing but will this technique work for long considering the adaptability of animals to new adversities? Also to be learned is whether such large scale use of Chilli powder will disturb the ecosystem in the area. Present technique of using electrified fences is still an effective one though occasional electrocution cases are reported. However installing electric fences is expensive with chances of human accidents if not properly managed. As of now the Chilli fencing seems to be a promising way of keeping the Elephants away from human dwellings proximate to the forest areas.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

HELPING "JUMBOS" TO SPARE THE PLANTS!

Even by liberal estimates world population of Elephants are placed at 5 to 6 lakh out of which only 10% constitute Asian elephants. Their sheer physical size demands huge volume of food to be consumed if they are to carry out their day to day activities. On an average an elephant can weight 4-6 tons though there are reports of jumbos with 12 ton weight. Their food consists of roots, barks, grass, leaves, berries, seedpods, many fruits and they are known to eat about 140-270 kg, almost 16 hours a day, drinking about 180-200 liters of water. As their digestive efficiency is low, almost 60% of the food ingested is not digested and they live for 50-70 years. Imagine the amount of food required to sustain a population of half a million jumbos that roam around the forests in Asia and Africa! Probably due to the ever shrinking forests, elephants are increasingly foraying into human habitats bringing about massive destruction of agricultural crops in their trail. It is surprising why the human ingenuity was not able to come out with a solution to the "elephantine" problem of feeding the hungry jumbos and spare the forests. Such a development was recently reported from Thailand.

"Recently, six Thai elephants gave a big trunks-up to the first packaged food substituted for the rapidly disappearing plants they are used to eat, said a zoo official in Bangkok. "The elephants at Bangkok's Dusit zoo all ate with gusto when fed for several months with chewable tablets made of concentrated sugar, cane, corn, molasses, vitamins and mineral,' said Alongkorn Mahannop, the zoo's director. "The half-kilogram, inch-long tablets will be tested in other zoos and the country's northern jungles"

What is not clear is whether elephants will really be satisfied with a tablet to satiate their hunger and how it can fill up its large GI tract to preempt the urge to eat. If the feed in the form of tablet really works, the contribution by Thailand will be remembered by animal activists as well as the environmentalists for ever!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com