Favourable impact of tea plantation
TEA does not grow everywhere in the world as it needs special type of soil, climate and also environment. Tea is basically a forest loving plant. It was found in deep forest area of upper Myanmer, South-East China, Assam, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam long back. The British started commercial planting here more than 160 years back. The first commercial plantation was at Malnicherra Tea Estate near Sylhet town in 1854. However, first experimental tea cultivation in Indian sub-continent was in 1840, in and around Chittagong Club. The 162 existing tea estates are occupying 1,14,912.87 hectares out of 144,65,408.88 hectares total land area of Bangladesh which represents 0.79% of it. New plantation is being carried out in parts of North Bengal and Hill Tracts which is going to bring more area under tea. Tea area means greenery, so more area under tea is environmentally good for our country. As we are aware 25% land of a country should be under forest cover for sound environmental balance but government claims in the book “Tree plantation for a green Bangladesh” published by Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2006 that we have 17.49 % green land without considering tea garden land. However there may be controversy over natural forest land and green land but we know that we may have less than 10% land under natural forest now which is just not enough for us to live well. As such tea plantation may be an alternative solution to the crisis. Records show that in 1976 our production of tea was 33.50 million kg out of which only 3.08 million kg was internal consumption and balance 30.42 million kg exported. Thereafter internal consumption started increasing every year and export declining. Finally, in the year 2008 our own consumption was 48 million kg and export dropped to about 10 million kg. It seems internal consumption is increasing by about 1.50 million kg every year on average. Therefore our country should achieve adequate growth of tea production to avoid import from other countries. Land under tea is giving us oxygen besides a healthy drink as well as cash crop like tea. It is contributing in overall environment and also economy of the country generating employment and earning foreign currency. With the initiative of a few tea planters, Tetulia Tea Co. Ltd. was established in 1999 to grow tea in North Bengal. Tea plantation in that area is now a reality where more than 0.5 million kg was produced in 2008. Besides creating employment in the area, tea plantation has changed the local micro-climate having a positive impact on its environment. As tea estate owners do not have control over outside environment they protect the environment inside the estate which benefits them directly while the country gets immense indirect benefit. For enhancing this the following may be undertaken: * Increasing the yield from unit area by consolidation because compact tea plantation will protect environment by conserving the soil. * Taking more area under new plantation means more green coverage. * Having proper shade in plantation means reducing atmospheric temperature and adding organic matter to soil * Planting more Neem trees in garden roadsides, sectional edges and all vacant patches of the estate will have positive impact on garden local temperature because one mature Neem tree is considered equivalent to one household air cooler. Moreover, Neem oil, Neem cake and neebicide can be produced for environment friendly use on a commercial basis. * Designing proper drainage system to drain out excess water because well drained soil can give optimum crop and soil erosion/land slide can be checked. * Making more water reservoirs in the garden to store water for irrigation and to create good micro climate in the garden. * Using agro-chemicals as much less as possible which will be good for the end product users as well as the garden environment. * Using more organic pesticide, insecticide and growth promoter. * Using more organic matters/compost to improve the soil health. * Allowing areas not suitable for tea or rubber for natural forest with local selective verities. * Having cattle farms (stall-feeding) inside the garden to get more compost and bio-gas apart from milk and meat. * Planting more fruit trees especially in the labour lines. M Afzal Hossain is a tea planter.
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