STUDIES ON SMALL TEA GROWERS IN NORTH BENGAL-PROSPECTS AND PERSPECTIVES

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2 STUDIES ON SMALL TEA GROWERS IN NORTH BENGAL-PROSPECTS AND PERSPECTIVES A thesis Submitted to the UTTAR BANGA KRISHI VISWAVIDYALAYA in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (AGRICULTURE) in Agricultural Extension by AVRAJYOTI GHOSH [Regn. No. - A D] WHERE WISDOM IS FREE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE UTTAR BANGA KRISHI VISWAVIDYALAYA PUNDIBARI, COOCH BEHAR, WEST BENGAL 2015

3 WHERE WISDOM IS FREE UTTAR BANGA KRISHI VISWAVIDYALAYA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION P. O. Pundibari, Dist. Coochbehar, W. B. India. PIN From: Dr. Prabhat Kumar Pal Associate Professor and Head Ref. No. UBKV/Agril. Extn./ Mob. No.: Date: CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the work recorded in the thesis entitled Studies of Small Tea Growers in North-Bengal-Prospects and Perspectives submitted by Mr. Avrajyoti Ghosh in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Agriculture) in Agricultural Extension of the Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, is the faithful and bonafide research work carried out under my personal supervision and guidance. The results of the investigation reported in the thesis have not so far been submitted for any other Degree or Diploma. The assistance and help received from various sources during the course of investigation have been duly acknowledged. Place: Pundibari, Cooch Behar Dated:.., 2015 (P. K. Pal) Chairman, Advisory Committee

4 APPROVAL OF EXAMINERS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (AGRICULTURE) IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION We, the undersigned, having been satisfied with the performance of Mr. Avrajyoti Ghosh (Regn. No. A D), in the Viva voce associated with Final Evaluation of thesis, conducted today, the 2015, recommend that the thesis be accepted for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Agriculture) in Agricultural Extension. Name 1. Dr. Prabhat Kumar Pal Department of Agricultural Extension Chairman, Advisory Committee Signature 2. External Examiner 3. Dr. Kausik Pradhan Department of Agricultural Extension Member of Advisory Committee 4. Prof. Ashutosh Sarkar Department of Agricultural Economics Member of Advisory Committee 5. Dr. Arunava Ghosh Department of Agricultural Statistics Member of Advisory Committee 6. Dr. Himadri Bhattacharjee Department of Plantation Crops and Processing Member of Advisory Committee Head Department of Agril. Extension Dean Faculty of Agriculture

5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT With a sense of deepest gratitude I do express immense indebtedness to Dr. P. K. Pal, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Extension, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, for his able guidance, kind co-operation, constructive criticism and above all, his unfailing and amiable behaviour and incessant help in the preparation of the manuscript. With profound glee, I extend my gratefulness to Dr. K. Pradhan, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension; Dr. A. Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Statistics, Dr. A. Sarkar, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Dr. H. Bhattacharjee, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Plantation Crops and Processing, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya for providing expertise and benevolent co-operations. I awe my grateful thanks to Prof. A. K. Choudhury and Prof. A. K. Singha Roy, Faculty of Agriculture for providing me with all necessary facilities for conducting this work during their respective tenures as Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture. A special word of thanks to Dr. A. K. Sit, Scientist-in Charge, CPCRI, R/C Mohitnagar, Jalpaiguri and Dr. Ranjit Chatterjee, Associate Professor, Dept. of Vegetable and Spice Crops, UBKV for their valuable suggestions, co-operation and encouragement during my study. Sincere thanks are extended to all the non-teaching staff and brothers and sisters of the Department of Agricultural Extension, U.B.K.V, and Library staffs of the university. I would like to record my special thanks to Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, President CISTA and Asim Sarkar member, CISTA for his kind help while conducting my survey. I am thankful to the respondents of the selected blocks namely Jalpaiguri sadar and Mainaguri Blocks of Jalpaiguri district and Chopra and i

6 Islampur blocks of Uttar-Dinajpur district for their sincere cooperation during the investigation. In Omega, I cannot but admit that my words fail to express my cordial love and gratitude to my beloved parents, wife & all my family members for their never ending heartfelt benedictions, unstinted inspirations and countless blessings which always act as my savior in the face of all sorts of perils. I offer my thanks to all others, friends and well wishers whose names are not mentioned here individually, for the help extended to me by them. In thanking all those people, I must emphasise that I am fully responsible for any shortcoming that remains. Date: Pundibari, Cooch Behar (AVRAJYOTI GHOSH) (Registration No. A D) ii

7 ABSTRACT Title of the Thesis : Studies on Small Tea Growers in North Bengal Prospects and Perspectives Name: : Avrajyoti Ghosh Registration No. : A D Name of the Chairman and Designation : : Dr. Prabhat Kr. Pal, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Extension, Faculty of Agriculture, UBKV Degree to be awarded : Doctor of Philosophy (Agriculture) in Agricultural Extension Year of award of degree : 2015 Total no. of pages of thesis : ix+170+xxiv Name of University : Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, PO. Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, INDIA. PIN Small tea growing system (STGS) is gradually emerging as a promising sector in North-Bengal and being substitutive to the traditional crop production system. High return compared to other traditional crops and less risk of crop failure makes it more popular among the youth and small and marginal farmers. Limited works has been done on STGS in North-Bengal perspective. In this condition, to study the Small tea growing system of North- Bengal, present study was undertaken as a Ph. D dissertation in Jalpaiguri and Uttar-Dinajpur as the most concentrated small tea growing districts in West Bengal; and selected 200 numbers of tea growers from the target area as respondents. During the work it was observed that majority of small tea growers have shifted from food and other cash crops into cultivating tea for their livelihood. The high profitability and prospects of setting a steady income with minimum efforts contributed to the growth of small tea growers. Youth could find a new avenue for good income in tea cultivation which incidentally suited their fancy and status consciousness. The maximum Small tea growing farmers in North-Bengal are in a poor condition due to un-organized nature, low economics of scale, low bargaining strength, un-even distribution of bought leaf factories (BLFs), absence of specified business linkage between bought leaf factories and small tea growers leading to low green leaf price realization and unfair trade practices. It is observed that STGs productivity was high compared to other estate gardens but the quality of leaf was observed very low in comparison to estate gardens which lead to low price realization. This study reveals a clear picture about the employment generation scenario in small tea growing system through the labour engagement throughout the year. As a consequence of the emergence of such system, the local labourers are being engaged in different activities and so out-migration to other areas has been reduced. The growth of Self Help Group (SHG) in North-Bengal has been steady now-a-days and a considerable percentage of small tea growers are associated with it. The SHG are following the scientific way of crop production. Overall quality of leaf, leaf productivity and leaf pricing is quite better in comparison to Non-SHG farmers. The Non-SHG farmers are also facing some major problems such as marketing and transportation problems, un-scientific practices, absence of adequate processing units, unequal balance in relationship between small growers and bought leaf factory, lack of money or loan facilities, absence of adequate training programmes, un-coordinated voice of small growers etc. The only way to improve the pricing and better livelihood of small tea growers are to raise collective voice and organized bargaining power which can only be achieved by establishing Self Help Groups. The Self Help Groups have evinced a strong desire in this direction and it is expected that Tea- Board will go all out to render all possible assistance to make their dream come true. The present study strongly recommends attracting all the small tea growers under the umbrella of SHGs to extract maximum benefit from the system. (P. K. Pal) Supervisor (Avrajyoti Ghosh) Student iii

8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLE LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF PLATES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS PARTICULARS CHAPTER-I PAGE NO. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Necessity of the study Objectives of the study Limitations of the study 9 i-ii iii iv-vi vii viii viii ix CHAPTER-II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Status of Small Tea Growers Socio-economic status of Small Tea Growers Causes of resorting tea Constraints of Small Tea Growing system Women participation in Small Tea Growing system Role of organisation associated with Small Tea Growers Production, marketing and technology status 22 CHAPTER-III THEORETICAL ORIENTATION 3.1 Conceptual framework and design of the study Concepts and meaning of terms used in the study Derivation of hypothesis 37 iv

9 RESEARCH SETTING CHAPTER-IV 4.1 Description of District Jalpaiguri Description of District Uttar-Dinajpur Description of different blocks of Jalpaiguri district under study Description of different blocks of Uttar-Dinajpur district under study 43 CHAPTER-V METHODOLOGY 5.1 Selection of area of study and individual respondents The data collection tool description of the schedule Selection and measurement of variables Derived variables computed from primary variables for 54 comparison and analysis 5.5 Data processing, tabulation and procedure used for analysis 56 CHAPTER-VI RESULT AND DISCUSSION 6.1 Socio- personal and agro-economic characters of Small Tea Growers of North-Bengal Distribution of small tea growers of North-Bengal according to different socio- personal characters Analysis of socio- personal characters based on mean value Agro-economic perspectives of Small Tea Growers Comparative analysis of agro-economic characteristics based on mean value 6.2 Scenario of resorting tea cultivation Year wise resort for tea cultivation Agents influenced resort for tea cultivation Causes of resorting tea Influence of socio-economic and personal characteristics on earliness of resorting tea Change in the family after resorting tea Perception regarding change in the locality after resorting tea v

10 6.3 Status of small tea growers in respect of production and marketing General perspectives of small tea cultivation in North-Bengal General description of tea cultivation in small tea sector Variation in package of practices followed by the tea growers according to the age of the garden Yield performance Trend of green leaf production Impact of socio-personal variables on tea production Employment generation and labour engagement Marketing and value chain Value chain Price realisation trend in different months of the year Economic analysis of the system Role of Tea-Board and SHG in development of STGs Women participation in small tea sector in North-Bengal Constraint analysis in small tea sector Performance of the system CHAPTER-VII SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 7.1 Summary and conclusion Suggestion and recommendation Paradigm for development of small tea sector Future scope/areas of study 165 CHAPTER-VIII BIBLIOGRAPHY 166 Battery of Schedule-1 Battery of Schedule-2 APPENDIX i-x xi-xiv vi

11 Table No. LISTS OF TABLES Particulars 5.1 Status of small tea growers Scheme of sampling Number of SHG in Jalpaiguri and Uttar Dinajpur district Indicators and scales for development of construct of performance Distribution of small tea growers of North-Bengal according to age and family size 6.2 Distribution of small tea growers of North-Bengal according to respondent s education and highest family education 6.3 Distribution of small tea growers of North-Bengal according to occupational diversity and economic status of the family 6.4 Distribution of small tea growers of North-Bengal according to media contact, outside contact and organizational participation 6.5 Distribution of small tea growers of North-Bengal according to their self confidence, innovativeness and leadership 6.6 Analysis of socio-economic and personal characters of small tea growers of North-Bengal based on mean value 6.7 Distribution of small tea growers of North-Bengal according to total and irrigated land holding 6.8 Crop cultivated by STGs other than tea Comparative analysis based on mean value Year wise number of farmers resorted tea Relative role of different agents for influencing resort to tea cultivation Causes of resorting small tea cultivation Impact of socio-economic and personal characters on earliness of resorting tea Contribution of tea in family income Perceived change in household situation Perception regarding improvement in locality environment Agronomic perspectives of small tea growing system General cultivation aspects followed by small tea growers of North -Bengal Adoption level of package and practice Age wise variation of different package of practices Variation in irrigation, weeding and plucking according to age Yield of green leaf with plucking characters Month wise yield of green leaf(qt/ac) 115 Page No vii

12 Table No. Particulars 6.24 Correlation co-efficient between socio-economic variables and production/ac/year 6.25 Labour requirement Month wise labour requirement /ac/year Control on value chain Socio-economic and personal correlates of control over value chain Different rate of green tea leaves in Jalpaiguri district Economic analysis Role performed by SHG Role of Tea-Board in execution/monitoring/training activities Distribution of women according to extent of activity participation in small tea sector 6.34 Distribution of women according to extent of decision participation in small tea sector 6.35 Comparative picture of male and female activity participation in different activity areas 6.36 Comparative picture of male and female decision participation in different areas 6.37 Distribution of STGs of North-Bengal according to the extent of constraints felt 6.38 Type of constraints with extent felt by the farmers of North-Bengal Correlation co-efficient with perception of constraints Distribution of small farms according to performance Influence of socio-economic, personal and situational variables on performance of small tea growing system 6.42 Stepwise multiple regression analysis for identification of predictors of performance of small tea growing system Page No viii

13 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Particulars No. No. 6.1 Distribution of STGs according to Religion, Caste, Economic class and 69 occupation including tea 6.2 Purpose and profitability of cultivation of other crops Trend of resorting tea Comparative picture between Districts and Groups Comparative pictures of perception regarding change in family condition 95 after resorting tea cultivation between districts and the SHG and Non- SHG members 6.6 Perception regarding change in locality Physical perspective of small tea plots of North-Bengal Recommended and practiced dose of N,P & K Age wise variation in application of different inputs practiced by STG of 111 North-Bengal with regression lines 6.10 Comparative production scenario Variation in yield of green leaf according to age of the garden Labour requirement and contribution Labour requirement at different age of the garden Month wise labour requirement/ac/yr Value chain of small tea production in study area Different rate of green leaf perceived by SHG and Non-SHG Comparative picture of leaf yield and price Age wise variation of operational cost B:C ratio with and without dividend(age wise) Cumulative profit trend in small tea sector Comparative extent of felt constraints 147 Plate No. LIST OF PLATES Particulars Page No. Plate- 1 Map of Jalpaiguri showing the areas of study 41 Plate-2 Map of Uttar Dinajpur showing the areas of study 43 Plate-3 Different activities in small growers plot 103 Plate-4 Scenario of small growers tea plucking 113 ix

14 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Ac APL ANOVA BLF B/C CDB CV CISTA FYM Ha INDCO Kg KVK KTDA K Km M MOP N NGO P Q RP Rs. Sqkm SSP STG SHG SGDD UD UK UPASI WS Acre Above Poverty Level Analysis of Variance Bought Leaf Factory Benefit Cost ratio Community Development Block Co efficient of variation Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Association Farm Yard Manure Hectare Industrial Co-operative Factory Kilogram Krishi Vigyan Kendra Kenya Tea Development Agency Potash Kilometer Metre Muriate of potash Nitrogen Non- Governmental Organisation Phosphate Quintal Rock phosphate Indian Rupees Square kilometer Single super phosphate Small Tea Growers Self Help Group Small Growers Development Directorate Uttar Dinajpur United Kingdom United Planters Association Of Southern India Workshop ix

15 CHAPTER-I INTRODUCTION

16 CHAPTER-I 1.1 Introduction INTRODUCTION Tea, the most ancient beverage mankind has been enjoying, is still the most popular drink in the world; may be regarded as the national drink in India is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of Camellia sinensis, an ever green shrubs native to Asia. Tea originated in China as a medicinal drink. Tea is introduced into India by the British, in an attempt to break the Chinese monopoly on it. The British bought Chinese seeds into Northeast India, but the plants failed; they later discovered that a different variety of Tea was endemic to Assam and the North-east region of India and that it was used by local tribes. Camellia sinensis is an ever green plant that grows mainly in tropical and sub-tropical climates. Tea plants are propagated from seeds and cuttings. Tea plants require at least 127 cm of rainfall a year and prefer acidic soils. The cultivated plants are generally pruned to waist height for ease of plucking. Owing to its increasing demand, tea is considered to be one of the major components of world beverage market. The global market of hot beverages like tea and coffee is forecasted to reach US$ billion in value and million tons in volume terms by the year 2015 (GIA, 2011). India is the second largest producer of Tea in the world after China with a 25% share of total production, including the famous Assam and Darjeeling Tea. Despite the production, India is also the largest exporter of tea after China. India is the world s largest consumer of tea uses nearly 30% of the global output. However, the per capita consumption of tea in India remains a modest 750 grams per person every year due to the large population base and high poverty levels. From Rs 19,500 crores in 2011, the total turn over of the Indian tea industry is expected to be Rs. 33,000 crores by 2015 (ASSOCHAM, 2011). Although tea is produced in 14 states in India, Assam and West- Bengal in North India and Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka in South India account over 98% of India s tea production. Annual production of tea in 2013 stood at 1200 million kg, with North India accounting for 79% in total production and the rest coming from South India. Tea production is expected in inch up marginally higher than last year in on account of better productivity from North India (Indian Tea Industry, 2014). Chapter-I

17 I N T R O D U C T I O N 2 The history of tea cultivation started in Assam, with the British establishing the first tea garden in Chabua in Tinsukia district of Upper Assam in The concept of cultivating tea individually in small holding is, however, a relatively recent phenomenon which was extensively started since 1990s. Different driving forces promoted the starting of small tea growing in South and North India. Small holding tea cultivation had existed even prior to the 1990s in Nilgiries. They came into existence in about the 1920s. Unlike the plantations of the North which were British owned and managed by the British managing agents, the Southern plantations were owned by the Indian capitalists who emerged around this time. During the great depression in the early 1930s there was a fall in the international price of tea. This fall in prices prompted the International Tea Agreement of 1933, between the main producer nations, India, Ceylon and Indonesia, accounting for 80 per cent of the world tea output. Accordingly, the Indian government passed the Tea Control Act in 1933 by which export quotas were fixed for big plantations. The expansion in acreage was also limited during this period the plantations controlled by managing agents in Eastern India reduced output, whereas the smaller independent plantations of South India and other peripheral areas expanded market share by encouraging small growers to cultivate tea and supply them the green leaf (Gupta, 1995; Hannan, 2013). Around 1961, the government removed the quota restrictions from the estates. It was around this time that the bought leaf factories came into existence (Reddy and Bhowmik, 1989) which also encouraged the cultivation of tea in small sectors. However, in North India, it was started in Upper Assam only during the late seventies and early eighties. A number of youth in the region initiated the process of growing tea in upland abandoned areas. The initial experiment was largely successful and attracted others to enter similar ventures. Relatively low capital required for investment, favourable climate condition, technical support from cheap and skilled surplus labourers from big tea gardens in these areas to extend technical support and a locally available market for green tea leaves turned this new effort of a section of local and enthusiastic youth into a huge success story. The initial success drew hundreds of more young tea growers in Assam. They are mostly educated and unemployed, eager to grab the opportunity unfolded by this new concept, and tempted by the prospect of carving out their own identities through self employment in these small tea gardens (Baruah, 2003; Mansingh and Johnson, 2012), Although small scale tea cultivation in Assam is rather in Chapter-I

18 I N T R O D U C T I O N 3 an infant stage considering the 150 years old tea industry of the country, but within the last three decades, more than 40,000 farmers have entered into this venture covering nearly hactare area which is able to create direct employment to 2.4 lakh people especially in rural areas (Tea Board, 2014). Within the tea sector in major producing countries, the small-holders sub-sector is an important segment world-wide at present. Consider first, the two leading black-tea exporting countries Sri Lanka and Kenya. In Sri Lanka, with more than 4,00,000 smallholders, the sub-sector constitutes about 64 percent of total area under tea and 76 percent of total production. In Kenya, with an estimated 5,60,000 small-holders, about 62 percent of the total production is derived from the sub-sector. The industry in China, the world s largest producer of tea (principally green tea) producing 1,475 million kilograms in 2010, is essentially small-holder-dominated and in the case of Vietnam, tea production is essentially dominated by small holders. In Indonesia, Small-holders account for 43 percent of the area under tea and 23 percent of production and in India, the world s second largest producer of tea and largest producer and consumer of black tea, an estimated 1,60,000 small-holders account for over 26 percent of its production of 966 million kilograms (2010). Moreover, there has been an enormous growth in the small-holder sector as compared to the large-scale organized sector in the past decade. The area under smallholders between 2001 and 2010 has increased from 1,140,700 hectares to 1,970,200 in China (a 73 percent increase), from 85,511 hectares to 115,023 hectares in Kenya (a 34 percent increase) and from 1,01,884 hectares to 1,32,000 hectares in Vietnam (a 30 percent increase). Between 1994 and 2005, the area under this sub-sector increased by 48 percent in Sri Lanka. In India, the share of the small holdings in the total output in the last decade has gone up from 11 percent to 26 percent (Intergovernmental Group On Tea, Colombo, 2012). Available data indicates that at the national level, there is an absolute increase in the number of STGs across India from 1,10,396 in 2000 to 1,57,504 in At the same time the area under tea cultivation has gone up from 1,09,198 hectares in 2003 to 1,62,431 hectares in Interestingly the percentage share of area under cultivation for tea shows that small growers constituted 21.02% in 2003 and have further increased to 28.08% in 2007 (Hannan, 2013). In Bengal, history of small tea growing started from North-Bengal area transforming traditional pineapple fields into tea. Pineapple cultivation was taken up by Chapter-I

19 I N T R O D U C T I O N 4 group of people in early 1970s in West-Dinajpur (now Uttar-Dinajpur), Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts. It offered an avenue for employment for other wage earners in the vicinity of the pineapple cultivation. This phenomenon continued for two decades. But this phenomenon didn t continue for long due to sudden drop in price of pineapple during 1990 and the successive years due to various factors like lack of processing factories, cold storages and problems of demand and market. It was during this period that the tea industry was doing well and there was a demand for extension plantation by corporate sector. The majority of the pineapple growers of these three districts took advantages of this situation and converted their land from pineapple to tea plantations (Hannan, 2013; Kadavil, 2012; Tea Board, 2011). According to Hannan (2013), small tea plantation started in Chopra block of Uttar-Dinajpur district and this place is considered as a birth place of small tea plantation in North-Bengal. At the initial stage small tea plantations emerged in backward areas. Afterwards, gradually, the traditional crop areas had also been converted as small tea growing sector in North Bengal. The study of Majumdar (2008) has found that agricultural land in Jalpaiguri and Uttar-Dinajpur district i.e Chopra and Johuri Talma were essentially monocropping land without irrigation facilities. The traditional agricultural operations seem to be economically non-viable in these regions due to these factors. On the other hand, in terms of net benefit, the rate of yield of tea is attractive than the rate of yield of traditional crops. From economic point of view, these were possibly the facts that justified the conversion of higher proportion of crop land to tea plantation. In Chopra, the conversion of pineapple land into tea has been found to be occurred and in Johuri Talma area of Jalpaiguri district, the area without having access to irrigation water through Teesta canal, have decided to switch over from traditional crops to tea. A report published on 2/9/2014 in Ananda Bazar Patrika, a Bengali daily, mentioned that in North-Bengal area there are approximately 40,000 numbers of small tea growers where almost 50,000 numbers of agricultural labours are engaged. They also added that 36% of total tea production is received from this small tea sector. In , 315 million kgs of green leaf were produced from North-Bengal, among which 126 million kgs were from small sector. Chapter-I

20 I N T R O D U C T I O N 5 According to Statistical data received from Land and Land Reforms Department, Govt. of West-Bengal (2009), 10,397 and 5,777 numbers of STGs were existing in Uttar- Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri district respectively with a total area of 10, hactare and hactare. Average holding size of these two districts was 1.06 and 1.56 hactare respectively. In West-Bengal condition total STG observed was 20,352 numbers with total and average holding size were 25, hactare and 1.27 hactare. The average size in majority of the holdings is less than one hectare. These small and marginal farmers are dependent on tea plantation for their livelihood. Tea in the North Eastern region has become a farmers crop, providing livelihood and new opportunity not only for self-employment but also for other wage earners. The abundance of suitable land, demonstration effect of tea estate in immediate surroundings, skilled labour, advantage of a long duration plantation crop over the other seasonal agricultural crops, suitable soil and climate etc. are some of the factors that encouraged the small and marginal farmers as well as educated unemployed and others to take up tea plantation. The major strength of this sector lies in the young and most productive age of the plantations of reasonably high clonal composition, low cost of production and the youth segment of first generation entrepreneurs with receptiveness to new and improved agro-techniques (Hannan, 2013; Kadavil, 2012). From the point of view of the smallholder, tea cultivation provides work and income throughout the year in tea growing areas nearer to the equator and for at least 8 to 10 months in other regions. Apart from the initial capital for planting and land preparation, it does not require substantial investments subsequently and the risk of crop failure is limited to very occasional pest attacks and natural calamities (Tea-Board, 2009). Kadavil (2012) mentioned that Tea is grown in 16 Indian States, of which Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala account for about 95 per cent of the total tea production. The industry in India includes small and big growers and government plantations. Small tea growers in India are economically and socially vulnerable as they are mostly marginal farmers, Dalits or from tribal communities. Many of them do not possess rights over the land they cultivate. Though the quantity of tea produced by small tea growers has increased over time, the profit accruing to them is very marginal. The reasons for this are several, chief among them being: low price-realisation owing to poor quality and inefficient and incompetent production structures in garden, inability of small tea growers to access international markets directly etc. Chapter-I

21 I N T R O D U C T I O N 6 As mentioned by Intergovernmental Group on Tea (2012), the major risk factor in smallholder cultivation is price volatility and the occasional crash in the price of green leaf due to a sudden drop in primary prices of made tea. This may lead to distress sale of the perishable produce at below the cost of production. Moreover, when the primary prices continue to remain at non-economic levels over a long period of time as it happened between 2001 and 2008, the entire sector is adversely affected but it is the smallholder who is the hardest hit. Unlike other cash crops which can be substituted with others, tea being a perennial plantation, there is no short-term or medium term solution. Riskmanagement through crop diversification is a possibility and smallholders who grow compatible multiple crops are able to secure themselves. Other than in Kenya and Sri Lanka, in most countries proper contracts with tea processing factories are absent and the management of the supply chain from the collection centre, transportation and delivery system of the green leaf is in the hands of agents. Smallholders also have limited access to credit due to the small size of their land holding and often not holding clear land title deeds, especially in Assam in India. The unorganized nature of STGs, low economies of scale, low bargaining strength, interior or remote location, uneven distribution of Bought Leaf Factories, absence of specified business linkage between Bought-Leaf Factories and Small Tea Growers leading to low green leaf price realization and unfair trade practices at times less than cost of production are the main bottlenecks of this sector. Mushrooming of leaf agents finds a major share in trade and become a barrier for business too. With this backdrop the present study was undertaken in North Bengal to explore the general picture of Small Tea Growers of North Bengal in respect of its prospects and perspectives. 1.2 Necessity of the study Small tea growing system is gradually emerging as a promising sector and being substitutive to the traditional crop production system. But till date there is limited number of studies conducted on STGs and so, limited reports on STG system, especially in West Bengal is available on: Socio-economic and socio-personal characteristics of tea growers in North-Bengal; reasons for resorting in small tea sector; status of STGs in relation to Chapter-I

22 I N T R O D U C T I O N 7 production and marketing of the product; employment generation scenario in small sector; extent of woman participation in STGs, constraints faced by STGs etc. Moreover, the limited number of studies (vide Ch-II) which were conducted in other countries and parts of India aroused the following research questions in mind. 1. Whether the background of the small tea growers of North Bengal is peasantry as in case of small scale tea farmers of other areas? 2. What is the agro-economic and socio-personal characteristic of small tea growers and which types of other enterprises he is affiliated besides tea? 3. What are the main causes for resorting to tea? 4. Whether rural youth and educated youth are earlier in resorting to tea? 5. What is the status of small tea growers of North Bengal in respect of adoption of production technology and status of production? 6. What is the status of employment generation in small sector tea cultivation in North Bengal? 7. Whether small scale tea sector is economically viable over time in North Bengal. 8. What is the status of women in small sector tea cultivation in North Bengal in respect of work load and decision making? 9. What are the roles of different organizations like tea board or SHG in development of small tea sector? 10. Whether the processing units are monopolistic in marketing or small tea growers have any control on it? 11. What are the factors that influence the performance of STGs in respect of production and control over value chain management? 12. Whether there are any constraints faced by the small tea growers and their extent? 13. What are the factors that influence the perception of constraints? 14. What types of social and economic changes have been observed among small tea growers after resorting to tea cultivation? 15. What is the overall performance of the small tea sector as a sustainable livelihood system? With the above questions in mind the present study was set with the following broad objectives: Chapter-I

23 I N T R O D U C T I O N Objectives of the study 1. To study the agro-economic and socio-personal characteristics of the small tea growers of North Bengal. 2. To identify causes of resorting tea production by the small tea growers of North Bengal. 3. To analyse the status of small tea growers in relation to production and marketing of the produce. 4. To study the extent of women participation in small tea growing system. 5. To identify the constraints faced by small tea growers in North Bengal. The above broad objectives were sub-divided into more specific smaller objectives according to the specific questions raised in the previous section as follows: (a) to explore the agro-economic and socio-personal characteristic of small tea growers of North Bengal. (b) to explore the main causes for resorting to small tea sector. (c) to assess the influence of agro-economic and socio-personal characteristic of small tea growers of North Bengal on earliness in resorting to tea. (d) to explore the production perspectives viz. acreage, age of the garden, land situation and technology usage in the small sector tea of North Bengal. (e) to assess the employment generation scenario in the small sector tea of North Bengal. (f) to assess the production status of green leaves in small tea sector of North Bengal. (g) to explore the value chain of green leaves prevalent in the small tea sector of North Bengal and the control of farmers on these value chains. (h) to explore the factors those influence the performance of STGs in respect of production and control over value chain management? (i) to analyse the economic viability of small tea sector of North Bengal. (j) to explore and analyse the roles of different organizations like tea board and SHGs in development of small tea sector. Chapter-I

24 I N T R O D U C T I O N 9 (k) to explore the status of women in small sector tea cultivation in North Bengal in respect of work load and decision making? (l) to explore the constraints faced by the small tea growers and analyse their extent. (m) to analyse the influence of agro-economic and socio-personal characteristic of small tea growers of North Bengal on extent of constraints? (n) to explore the social and economic changes occurred after resorting to small tea growing system. Based on the findings on the above objectives the study will find out the performance of small tea growing system in respect of its efficiency and effectiveness in context of the livelihood of North Bengal farmers and will find out the factors responsible for effective performance of the system. 1.4 Limitation of the study The study dealt with the small tea growers of North Bengal. Considerable number of members of this sector has not achieved No Objection Certificate (NOC) yet from the Land Revenue department and so they are always skeptical in relation to any quarry and giving proper response. They are also reluctant to give precise information. Moreover, it is a study of social science and used the social science scales and measurements- which have some inherent limitations of precision. The outcome and generalization of this study, as in case of any other social science research, is limited to the extent to which the respondents were faithful in their response. Chapter-I

25 CHAPTER-II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

26 CHAPTER-II REVIEW OF LITERATURE A comprehensive and systematic review of the past literature is a prerequisite for carrying out research in a scientific manner. A reference to the past studies provides guidelines not only to frame future areas of research to be covered and methodology to be adopted but also to confirm and/or repudiate research outcome with possible reasons. This chapter, Review of Literature describes the findings of related study which would aid in explaining the result of the present study. However, the reviews which are directly or indirectly concerned with the objectives of the study have been presented briefly and systematically under different headings, objective-wise. The entire review of literature is presented in the following sections: 2.1 Status of Small Tea Growers 2.2 Socio-economic characteristics of Small tea growers 2.3 Causes of resorting small tea growing system 2.4 Constraints of small tea growing system 2.5 Women participation in small tea growing system 2.6 Role of organisation associated with Small tea growers 2.7 Production, marketing and technology status Chapter-II

27 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E Status of Small Tea Growers As per Tea Board of India (2004), there are 1,27,366 STGs spread over 15 states with area under cultivation of 1,10,787 hectare. Production increased from million kg to million kg between 1998 and Among the 15 states, 12 are found to be in North and North-East India. Baruah and Taparia (2004) mentioned that most of the small holders in Assam and West Bengal were small and marginal and nearby about 85% of STGs were having less than 4 hactares of holdings. According to Tea-Board (2005) the annual growth rate in the number of STG is 7.87% for all India during 1998 to 2004 and the regional growth was 16.36% in North and North-East India. and 3.37% in south India.The annual growth in area under cultivation was 10.25% in all India as compared to 15.17% and 5.83% respectively in North and North-East states and South Indian states. The average farm size at the state level was 1.04 and 0.72 hactare respectively in North and North-East India and South India. In respect to productivity per unit of area for STGs garden and Estate/big growers at National level were kg per hectare and 752 kg per hectare respectively. Tea-Board of India (2005) has defined Small Tea Growers ( STG) are those who are having tea plantation upto hactare and not possessing his own tea processing factories. As per the Directorate of Tea Development (2005), only 56.77% of growers had registered with Tea-Board. Maximum registration observed in Nilgiris area, where almost all the growers are given temporary registration under price subsidy scheme. Status of registration is perhaps decreasing in the in the case of West-Bengal and some North Eastern regions. As mentioned by Tea-Board (2006), only 71,676 numbers of STGs were registered with Tea-Board and among them 5,595 nos. from North-East and 61,773 nos. from South-India. According to Tea Board of India there were 178 registered BLFs in Assam and out of which 68 factories were located in Tinsukia band 51 were in Dibrugarh districts. Almost all the factories were established after 1995 except Upper Assam Chapter-II

28 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 12 Industries (1984). The ownership patterns of the BLFs were either partnership firms, or private limited companies and they were processing only CTC tea (Black Tea). Tea Board (2007) mentioned that number of small growers in Assam was more than but only 2,927 growers had been registered with Tea Board. But the percentage of farmers registered under tea board was relatively higher in West-Bengal (14.46%), Tamilnadu (18.95%) and was highest in Kerala (31.98%). They also mentioned that a few numbers of small growers had their proper land documents or ownership of land therefore they did not get registration from Tea-Board. As a result they were not in a position to avail any financial assistance from Tea-Board. Baruah (2007) revealed that in Assam, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts account for around 51% of the total area where as the five districts of upper Assam account for 88% of the total tea area under small sector. From the record of Tea Board (2011), it is revealed that 10,397 and 5,777 numbers of STG were existing in Uttar-Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri district respectively with a total area of 10, and hactares respectively. Average holding size of these two districts was 1.06 and 1.56 hactares respectively. In West-Bengal condition total STG observed was 20,352 numbers with total and average holding size of 25, hactare and 1.27 hactare. Committee on Commodity Problem, Colombo (2012) revealed that there are more than smallholders in Sri Lanka who account for 76 percent of tea production, produced in 64 percent of the area under tea. In Kenya, an estimated smallholders account for 62 percent of total tea production. In Indonesia, smallholders account for 43 percent of the area under tea and 23 percent of production and in India, the world s second largest tea producing country and largest producer and consumer of black tea, an estimated smallholders account for over 26 percent of its production. According to them, the average land holding in most countries, tend to be on the lower side. For example, the average size in Indonesia is less than 0.4 ha, 1.6 ha in India and more than 80 percent of small-holders in Sri Lanka hold less than 0.2 ha. Chapter-II

29 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 13 Mansingh and Johnson (2012) revealed that small holding of tea cultivation had existed prior to 1990s. They came into existence in about 1920s. Unlike the plantation of the North which were British owned and managed by British managing agents, the southern plantation were owned by Indian capitalists who emerged around this time. According Kadavil (2012) also supported that small tea growers, particularly in the north-eastern regions, do not possess documents for the land they possess, and so they are slow in registration with tea board. Hannan (2013) revealed some data about the STG in comparison with large estate garden. Available data indicates that at the national level, there is an absolute increase in the number of STGs across India from in 2000 to in At the same time, the area under tea cultivation has gone up from hectares in 2003 to hectares in During the same period, the area under estate gardens/ big growers seem to be almost constant. Interestingly, the percentage share of area under cultivation for tea shows that the small growers constituted percent in 2003 and have further increased to percent in 2007.Similar trends for the estate gardens/big growers have rather shown a declining trend from per cent to percent during the same period. The share of tea production of the small-holders has also increased substantially from 20.57per cent to per cent during the period between 2003 and He added that a few number of growers were registered with Tea Board. In the entire state of Assam only 2927 growers were registered out of rowers. The highest concentration of growers is found in Tinsukia and Sivsagar with a total of and the registered growers were only 408 i.e. a paltry 1.81 per cent. It also indicates that only well-informed smallholders were registered with Tea Board. 2.2 Socio-economic status of Small Tea Growers Baruah(2003) studied about the educational status of small tea growers of Assam. Analysis of data on profile of education indicates that about 63% of small tea growers in Assam are having good academic qualification ( higher secondary level and above). They are found to be highly receptive in adopting scientific method of tea cultivation. There are also technical graduates such as B.sc(Ag), BE and even MBBS who Chapter-II

30 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 14 are engaged in this venture. He revealed that the growers in this group are more urbanized in outlook. They usually shy away from engaging themselves in growing of other crops except tea due to fancy attached to tea cultivation. They are more concerned with profit making, more willing to take risks and better able to take decisions. Baruah (2003) also discussed about in service growers and sleeping growers. The small tea growers under in service category usually go for the enterprise for the sense attainment and personal satisfaction. Personal hobby rather than income is prime motive of their entry. Of course future engagement for them after retirement or keeping a good property for their offspring also plays dominating role in engaging themselves in such enterprises. Many of the in service growers are Sleeping Growers, who are become active when the units show high profit. Majumdar(2008) showed that more than 25% of the respondents are educated upto primary level, 22% upto secondary level and 21% upto high school level only. The percentage of respondents educated upto higher secondary level is and upto graduate level is 11%. Only 2.5% had been received in post graduate level. He also revealed that respondents having rural background comprises 86% while these having urban background make up only 14% of the total number. It is therefore,seen that permanent village dwellers, who were predominately peasants, had made their presence felt strongly among the STGs during the third phase. According to Majumdar (2008), 29% of the respondents of North-Bengal are falling under the age group of years, 51% belongs to age group of years and only 20% are of above 50 years old. Therefore, that 80% of the respondents are falling within the younger and middle age. This is one of the welcoming features in small tea sector. Small scale tea provides ample avenue for self employment of unemployed rural youth, besides engaging the middle age rural people with this enterprise. It is also to be noted that young growers segment usually shy away from engaging themselves in growing of other crops except tea due to fancy attached to tea cultivation. He also showed that the maximum percentage (40%)of respondents are still associated with traditional crop cultivation, followed by small business which comprises 15% of the total respondents. It is observed that some parts of land are being used for tea while the remaining parts being put under paddy, jute and pineapple. This is thus, the evidence of crop diversification being Chapter-II

31 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 15 undertaken by the STG. One possible reasons for this phenomenon might be the diversification of risks and uncertainty associated with traditional crop cultivation and the maintenance of steady flow of farm income over the year. As mentioned by Tea Board (2011), the STG sector, comprising the traditional crop cultivators and the educated youth from rural and even urban areas. As revealed by Committee on Commodity Problem, Colombo (2012), Smallholder growth in production has been significant in the last decade as tea area under smallholders in China increased by 73 percent from 1.1 million ha to almost 2 million ha between 2001 and During the same period production area under smallholders expanded by 34 percent in Kenya, from ha to ha and by 30 percent in Vietnam, from ha to ha. Between 1994 and 2005, tea area under smallholders increased by 48 percent in Sri Lanka, while in India, the share of output from smallholders increased from 11 percent to 26 percent. 2.3 Causes of resorting Tea Baruah (2003) indicated some reasons about resorting of small tea cultivation. The small growers have shared the benefit arising out of large scale tea plantation by industrial houses in the past, by providing readymade infrastructure like technology, skilled workers and market, for promoting small scale tea cultivation. The small enterprises are subordinate to richer industrial sectors which can provide subvention for their organization and improvement, if both sectors learn to grow side by side. Secondly, the high profitability and prospects of getting a steady income with minimum efforts contributed to the growth of small tea growers. Thirdly, tea caught the fancy of educated unemployed youth, who usually shy away doing agricultural chores. Moreover, to establish the occupancy right of the unutilized fallow land under the ownership of the rich farmers was also another reason for expansion of tea cultivation in small sector. Baruah (2007) showed that the small tea growers, have shared the benefit arising out of large scale tea plantation by the industrial houses in the past, by providing readymade infrastructure like technology, skilled workers, and market for promoting small Chapter-II

32 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 16 scale tea cultivation. Secondly, the high profitability and prospects of getting a steady income with minimum efforts contributed to the growth of small tea growers. Thirdly, tea caught the fancy of educated unemployed youth, who usually shy away doing agricultural chores. According to him youth could find a new avenue for good income in tea cultivation which incidentally suited their fancy and status consciousness. Small scale tea cultivation provides ample avenue for self employment of educated youth besides engaging family members directly with the enterprise. Majumdar (2008) reveals that the traditional crop cultivation was not a remunerative land use option to a significant number of peasants in different areas of this region. Besides, the economically non-viable size of holding coupled with the lack of irrigation facilities, the raising input prices and stagnant agricultural crop prices, the reduced access to institutional credit and other agricultural extension services have prevented them from continuing traditional farming activity. In some cases, the land owners who are traditionally pineapple growers, have also switched over to tea cultivation. Absence of well organized market, non remunerative prices for the produce, lack of preservation facility, absence of good processing industries so on and so forth, the farmers in the pineapple sector have shifted to tea cultivation. Uncertainty associated with traditional crop cultivation, assurance of economic security, a steady flow of farm income, a fairly low risks of disease and a relatively little amount of investment which have motivated this segment of the peasantry class to switch over to tea. Majumdar (2008) also found that agricultural land in Jalpaiguri and Uttar- Dinajpur district i.e Chopra and Johuri Talma are essentially monocropping land without irrigation facilities. The traditional agricultural operations seems to be economically nonviable in these regions due to these factors. On the otherhand, in terms of net benefit, the rate of yield of tea is attractive than the rate of yield of traditional crop. This possibly one of the facts as that justifies the conversion of higher proportion of crop land to tea plantation from an economic point of view. In Chopra, the conversion of pineapple land into tea has been found to be occurred and in Johuri Talma area of Jalpaiguri district, the area without having access to irrigation water through Teesta canal, have decided to switch over from traditional crops to tea. Chapter-II

33 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 17 According to Tea-Board (2011), prior tea cultivation in North-Bengal area total area was almost covered by pineapple plantation. Pineapple cultivation was taken up by group of people in early 1970s in West-Dinajpur ( now Uttar-Dinajpur),Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts. It offered an avenue for employment for other wage earners in the vicinity of the pineapple cultivation. This phenomenon continued for two decades.but this phenomenon didn t continue for long due to sudden drop in price of pineapple during 1990 and the successive years due to various factors like lack of processing factories, cold storages and problems of demand and market. It was during this period that the tea industry was doing well and there was a demand for extension plantation by corporate sector.the majority of the pineapple growers of these three districts took advantages of this situation and converted their land from pineapple to tea plantations. According to Committee on Commodity Problems, (2012), most of small holders in India and many emerging countries are new to tea, having shifted from food crops and cash crops such as potato and pineapple into tea cultivation. They have no specified training, they have often started with wrong choice of planting materials, leading to the creation of poor field performances. The potentiality or capacity level of small farmimg community needs to be enhanced with the introduction of modern farming method to improve their farm productivity and quality of their produces. Hannan (2013) mentioned that early 1990s this area was dominated by pineapple cultivation and due to absence of proper marketing and processing strategies, the pineapple growers had to face a lot of difficulties for selling the product. The resultant outcome was that the vast tract of pineapple growing area had been converted to a new and commercially viable crop like tea. According to him small tea plantation started in Chopra block of Uttar-Dinajpur district and this place is considered as a birth place of small tea plantation in North-Bengal. At the initial stage growers were facing transportation problem as small tea plantations emerged in backward areas. He showed that the abundance of suitable land, demonstration effect of tea estate in immediate surroundings, skilled labour, advantage of a long duration plantation crop over the other seasonal agricultural crops, suitable soil and climate etc. are some of the factors that encouraged the small and marginal farmers as well as educated unemployed and others to take up tea plantation in India. Chapter-II

34 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E Constraints of Small Tea Growing system: Reddy and Bhowmik(1989)revealed that. One of the important limitations of small growers is that they can not establish tea processing unit in their farm since factory requires a huge amount of investment, furthermore, smallfarmers are too small to produce leaves for a factory. So traditionally they have been selling their leaves to large factories in a very low price. The prices are set by the factories that enjoy the status of monopoly or monopolistic competition. In order to come out of the clutches of these large factories, small farmers of Nilgiris district formed co-operative factories. These cooperative factories give remunerative prices to small growers. Baruah (2003) enlighted some problems in small tea sector in Assam. These are, land, financial, marketing problems. More over small growers face poor technical backup, ecological imbalance and organizational problem. Baruah (2003) discussed some reasons for low productivity in small tea sector. These are, use poor planting materials, use of unsuitable area, lack of proper technical knowledge, reluctant to new technology, engagement of unskilled labours, lack of management skill,dirth of finance etc. He suggested some steps to increase productivity in small sector such as planting high yielding varieties and quality planting materials, timely use of inputs in proper ratio. Tea Board (2007) mentioned that small growers are not able to get remunerative price for their green leaf as it gets damaged during the transit to the factories located in far places. Tea Board also agreed the necessity to set up co-operative tea processing factories, specially mini factories which are being developed. Small holder farmers lack general farm management practices. Study by Mwaura and Muku(2007) indicated that small scale tea farmers had diverse experience in tea farming, ranging from one year to fifty years, affecting productivity. They further noted that some tea farmers failed to use any fertilizer on their farms, while others used more than the recommended quantity. Tea Board (2011) also discussed about some issues faced by small tea growers, such as, unscientific practices for agricultural operation, absence of adequate Chapter-II

35 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 19 number of processing units, lack of knowledge on Tea-Board schemes and facilities about to small tea growers, land ownership issues etc. They gave a clear idea about the constrains faced by small growers in North-East as well as West-Bengal. They mentioned the following points: 1) Unscientific practices of agricultural operations and post harvest management. 2) Absence of adequate number of processing units in locality. 3) Unequal balance in relationship between small growers and BLFs. 4) Lacking of fund and consequent exploitation by money lenders, who also take on the role of leaf collection agent thereafter. 5) Lack of proper functioning of existing few Small Tea Growers Societies 6) Un-coordinated voice of small growers. 7) Land ownership issues. 2.5 Women participation in Small Tea growing system: Tea plantation industry is a labour intensive one and majority of workers are women. Concentrating on the role of women workers in trade unions. Sarkar and Bhowmik(1988) found that participation in women in trade union activity is low, and the major reasons, according to them, are inequality, low literacy rate, low political consciousness and burden of the household duties. Kurian (1999) mentioned that the terms and conditions of work of women workers in tea plantations are governed by the Plantation Labour Act,1951. He added that the facilities provided to them are not sufficient. They are not getting proper amount of food or nutrient. Women in the plantations are educationally backward and social interaction and general awareness etc is also poor. Chapter-II

36 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 20 According to Kadavil (2012) the tea industry is labour intensive and women are major workers among them. Though there is only a marginal increase of women workers from 2001 to 2005, women workers still constitute the majority of workers of tea industry in India. 2.6 Role of Organisation associated with Small Tea Growers: According to Tea Board (2011), STGs of four states of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala joined together to form a national body of smallholders in tea plantations. Initially, the national planning meeting for the formation of a national body of STGs was organised at Centre for Education and Communication, New Delhi partnering with Traidcraft Exchange, UK on 30th and 31st October There were 12 participants representing the state federal bodies from Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.Presently CISTA represents STGs of more than ten states and Special Invitee of Tea Board of India. Tea-Board (2011) forms Small Growers Development Directorate (SGDD) to overcome the constraints faced by small tea growers. The main tasks of SGDD is about building the capacities of STG. The specific tasks includes, 1) Provide training to the society leadership. 2) Providing training in agronomy and post harvest technology management of green leaf. 3) Development of a number of business consultant in each region. 4) Dissemination of best practices and tea news through village level methods. 5) Facilitating the capacity building of STG apex organization. 6) Facilitating setting energy efficient mini tea processing factories under the ownership and management of Small Tea Growers Producer Societies. 7) Facilitating in the marketing of STG tea. 8) Introduction of loan and subsidy scheme. 9) Campaign for registration of all the STGs. 10) Removal of dependency on the agents and middlemen for marketing their green leaf. Chapter-II

37 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 21 11) Arrangement for centralized purchase of inputs directly from the manufacturer for the SHGs at subsidized rate. According to Mansingh and. Johnson (2012) SHGs of small tea growers in Nilgiris started emerging in about early 2000s. UPASI-KVK supported SHGs as part of implementing the Quality Upgradation Programme (QUP). Groups of STGs were formed and technical training was given to them. Focus was on improvement in field and changing the growers plucking practices. In 2001 UPASI KVK started implementing another programme - the Factory Up gradation Programme (FUP), which provided a subsidy of 50 percent to factories to upgrade equipment., incentives and training programmes to help factories attain relatively costly ISO and HACCP certification. UPASI tried to combine QUP, FUP into one. The idea was that on the one hand, training of STGs and an upgrading of the quality of green leaf, and on the other hand, improving capacities of the BLFs would together contribute in fetching a better price of leaf to the STGs. According to Kadavil (2012) the Tea Board plays a key role in the industry as a regulatory and promoting body. It is a statutory body set up under the Tea Act, 1953 to promote all round development of the tea industry and comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce. Tea Board takes many initiatives to promote tea market, tea production and improve the quality of green leaves and made tea. Self Help Groups in Assam and West Bengal, provision of education loans and subsides to tea cultivation, national and international promotion of Indian tea are some of the initiatives of Tea Board which took place in the recent period. The major focus was on various plantation development activities, such as replanting, rejuvenation, and creation of irrigation facilities. The pricesharing formula between small tea growers and the manufacturers to enable the small growers to get a reasonable share of the price obtained for the made tea, price subsidy scheme, quality up-gradation programme and so on, are some of the major initiative to enhance the production segments especially for the small tea growers in India. They also revealed that introduction of Self Help Groups in different states has also improved the quality of green leaves from the small tea sector. Special efforts are also being made to address the problems of the small growers of tea. These include measures like fixation of a Chapter-II

38 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 22 price-sharing formula, implementation of a price subsidy scheme and carving of a special tea term loan package. Hannan (2013) mentioned that only a little fraction of STGs are organized under the primary producer societies. Large numbers of STGs are to be organized in the form of STGs societies to make their presence and visibility in tea industry. It is also noticed that individually members of existing STGs societies are not registered with Tea-Board of India. He added that All Assam Small Tea Growers Association (AASTGA) and All Bodoland Small Tea Growers Association (ABSTGA) are two apex bodies of all STGs in Assam. In West Bengal is the United Forum of Small Tea Growers Associations (UFSTGA) is a federation of eight associations in Uttar Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and the Kishanganj District of Bihar such as 1) Jalpaiguri Jela Khudro Cha Chasi Samiti, 2) Uttar Banga Khudra Prantik Chasi Samiti, 3) Uttar Dinajpur Small Tea Growers Welfare Association, 4) Uttar Dinajpur Small Tea Planters Association, 5) Daspara Little Planters Association, 6) Uttar Banga Khudro Cha Chasi Welfare Samiti, 7) Indian Tea Planters Association (New Garden Forum), and 8) Bihar Small Tea Planters Association. He also noted that the North Bengal Small Tea Planters Association (NBSTPA) is the oldest association in West Bengal having members all across the area. The tea growers up to 100 acres are the members of this sociation and it also has members with less than hectares of tea cultivation. 2.7 Production, marketing and technology status As mentioned Reddy and Bhowmik (1989), that the co-operative factories in Nilgiris have had a positive effect in helping small tea growers, especially those with very small holding. The co-operative factories have not only ensured fair prices to their members but also to growers in areas where there are no co-operatives. The bought leaf factories in these areas pay their growers the market prices. Bhowmik (1991) mentioned that the location of planted area, adjacent to large tea plantation, will be particularly beneficial as small producers can make use of the technological knowhow and capital available to large farmers. Chapter-II

39 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 23 Nyangito (2000) revealed that, KTDA still dominates in providing supplies, collecting green leaf, processing and marketing for smallholder farmers. However, a parallel system has emerged in which farmers sell green tea leaf directly to private factories or to middlemen for immediate payment. This system has no contractual service arrangement between farmers and green leaf tea buyers; it is only a sale agreement for the green tea leaf delivered to the factory or buying centre. The price farmers receive in the parallel markets, an average of Ksh 6 per kilogram of green leaf, is generally lower than the annual average of about Ksh 22 per kilogram of green paid by KTDA in 1997/98 year. The main advantage for farmers is that they are paid immediately instead of by the monthly or semi-annual payments that KTDA makes. Baruah (2003) enlighted some points to improve the condition of small scale sector in Assam. These are, Fair price realization through effective use of price sharing formula, setting up separate authority for technical knowhow and financial help, setting up SHG based own factory and own brand with the help of Tea-Board, and lastly govt. should adopt a uniform treatment to all small tea growing states in terms of quality parameter of leaf, facility and allied matters. Tea Board (2011) mentioned that the growth of SHG in North-Bengal has been steady. The STG today feel that the only way to have collective voice and organized bargaining power is to form themselves into SHG. They are set for bigger participation in the tea industry by establishing their own processing units and do away with the present problems of sale of green leaf where the market is distorted and non-remunerative. Tea- Board added that there are 53 numbers of SHGs and 3592 numbers of members in Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Uttar-Dinajpur districts of North-Bengal,covering 0f hactare land of North-Bengal. According to Tea-Board (2012), the main aim of the training programme or Technical workshop is to increase the productivity and quality of tea in small tea growing sector by focusing on technology transfer for improving field productivity, improvement of awareness level of quality of green tea leaves, reduction of cost of cultivation and minimum residual levels of pesticides in the end product. Chapter-II

40 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 24 Mansingh and Johnson (2012) mentioned that Tea - Board has been making enabling provisions for the small tea growers from the 9th plan onwards. During the 9th plan period the Tea Board introduced the 'Small Growers Development Scheme' which envisaged to provide STGs training on modern aspects of tea cultivation, study tours and field visits. This scheme was modified and continued in the later plans. In the successive plans the Tea Board developed various schemes for the benefit of the small growers: According to Kadavil (2012), tea quality is primarily determined by the genetic properties of the tea planted and those of the tea bush in particular. Both soil and climate is influence the quality of tea. Climatic condition including temperature, humidity, sunshine duration, rainfall, north-south facing gardens are important in determining quality. Field operation like pruning, fertilising, shading, plucking round and plucking standard are also playing the important role in determining the quality of tea. South and north facing of tea gardens/bushes and other climatic conditions, shade/ rain fall also affect quality of leaf. Generally, the producer and the Tea Board control the quality of the product, but at different levels. At the same time, brokers also play an influential role in maintaining the quality of the product. As mentioned by Mansingh and Johnson (2012), most SHGs find that their activities at the garden-level do not help small growers to move upward in the value chain, and there is a tendency to limit themselves to the lower levels of the value chain. There is a need to form groups which can participate in decision-making at various levels of the value chain. According to Kadavil (2012), the value chain concept can also be defined as the combination of design, product development, marketing, production and retailing by which products progress from conception to the final consumer. The tea value chain is acquainted with the role of various stakeholders who control and who add value along the chain. The pre and post-auction value chain for tea is long and complicated and involves a number of stakeholders. This includes producers including small tea holders, workers, BLF owners, brokers, buyers, blenders and national and international buyers and retailers. The buyers include buying agents (at the auction centres), sub-agents (in the upcountry markets), wholesalers and semi wholesalers (in the smaller upcountry markets and Chapter-II

41 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 25 international level). Other major stakeholders include retailers and consumers. The schematic representation shows multistakeholders and its inter-linkages of the value chain in Indian industry. He also mentioned that the Bought Leaf Factories (BLFs) have a major role in controlling the mechanism of price determination and quality of tea. He also added that the leaf agent often mixes different grades of green leaves before selling it to the BLFs and it also reduce the price of the leaf.. Committee on Commodity Problem (2012) revealed that the smallholders typically sell their green leaves through 4 possible channels, namely: Indirect through middlemen/leaf agents/collectors, or direct Stand-alone privately-owned processing units (known as Bought Leaf factories in India and usually a small/medium enterprise) Integrated plantation units (large tea gardens or tea estates plantations Mansingh and Johnson (2012) mentioned that the various models of collectives of STGs exist in the Nilgiris INDCO Co-operative, Self Help Groups (SHG), TANTEA Estates and Primary Producer Societies (PPS)s. In a situation when the higher ends of the value chain restructured and exerted pressure on the lower ends of the chain, each of these efforts at collectivisation is unique and determines how STGs inserted themselves in the global value chain and in the process how far they are able to build a counter pressure to the global capital. While they were shaped by the existing institutional set up of the Nilgiris, they have also exerted their impact to reshape these institutions. The first three programmes are government initiated programmes while the fourth is initiated by non-state actors. INDCO cooperative sets itself on the co-operative principles of economic participation and equity. SHGs focus on financial inclusion of women. TANTEA locates itself in corporate philosophy of professional management and profit. PPSs aim at giving a collective voice to the STGs at various levels. The paper seeks to inquire if these collectives have achieved their objectives. They added that, Small tea growers are inserted into the tea value chain as a result of global changes in tea trade and brand led restructuring process. Their insertion into the value chain is determined by the governance structures within the chain as well as though interplays of territorial factors and institutional relationships. Chapter-II

42 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 26 According to Mansingh and Johnson (2012), agents collect the green leaf from STGS and transport to the processing factory. There are several factors that make agents a powerful player in this value chain. One, the agent gives an impression that he is absorbing the risks. This means that any loss due to delay in transportation or the withering of the leaf does not fall on the farmer. Two, the farmers have taken an advance from the agent. Three, the agent is a trusted member of their own community, sometimes an STG himself. All these factors end up creating a relationship of dependency between the STG and the agent in which the agent has an upper hand and he uses this for fixing the green leaf price. Farmer does not have any say in this. Hannan (2013) revealed that the dependency level of STGs to the leaf agents was 44.21%, 18.30%, 26.13% and 8.13% in Assam, West-Bengal, Tamilnadu, and Kerala respectively. The middlemen or leaf agents are active in small tea producing area. BLFs are totally depended on leaf agents because SHG can supply low volume of green leaf but the BLFs crashing capacity is much more than possible supply from small number of SHG members. BLF could explore the alternative sources of green leaf supply to meet the required amount of leaf on a daily basis. This has led to the growth of leaf agents in small tea growing areas. If each village is organized under societies, BLFs would find a comfortable situation to purchase the green leaf directly from STGs by replacing leaf agents. Hannan (2013) also mentioned that technical knowhow is low among small scale tea growers in India. Tea is a perennial crop and the leaf is plucked throughout the year. It has seasonal occurrence of pest and diseases, additional water requirement, scientific ways of plucking, pruning and bush management, optimum use of manure and fertilizer, leaf procurement and proper shading etc. All these activities required extensive farming knowledge and STGs are lacking all such skills. It has a serious implication on production, quality management and cost of production and profit margin of growers. Tea Board of India offers special assistance to this sector in the form of subsidies, financial support and technical training. Chapter-II

43 R E V I E W O F L I T E R A T U R E 27 Based on the works reviewed above the following information were extracted regarding the small tea growing sector. 1) Most of the small tea growers are small and marginal in nature and very few of them registered under Tea Board. 2) Small tea cultivation is dominated by young and middle age group. 3) Maximum small tea growers are having qualification upto secondary level but recently maximum small holders of Assam (about 63%) are having good academic qualification like higher secondary and above. 4) Maximum small tea growers are shifted from pineapple cultivation to tea sector due to lack of well organized market, non-remunerative price and lack of cold storage or processing units. On the other hand high profitability and prospects of getting steady income throughout the year attracted the growers in small tea cultivation. 5) The small tea growers are facing some serious problems like using of poor planting materials, lack of proper technological knowledge, availability of unskilled labours, lack of adequate number of processing units in locality, land ownership problems, lack of control over market and lack of co-ordination among growers. It has a serious implication on production, quality management, cost of production and profit margin of growers. 6) Small tea industry is labour intensive and women are major workers among them. 7) Small tea growing sector are now organized to some extent under primary producing societies called Self Help Groups ( SHG) and are getting sufficient training, subsidies and different helps from Tea Board to promote tea marketing, production and improve the quality of green leaves and made tea. The above information geared the derivation of hypotheses to be tested in the present study. Chapter-II

44 CHAPTER-III THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

45 CHAPTER-III THEORETICAL ORIENTATION Objective of this chapter is to discuss the conceptual frame work of the study in order to supply a concrete theoretical foundation of the investigation. Rogers and Svenning(1964) pointed out that the development of a conceptual framework makes a research more meaningful for whatever the nature, an empirical investigation without theoretical basis becomes bogged down in masses of relevant data and at the same time ignores potentiality fruitful objectives. This chapter includes the following criteria: 1. Conceptual framework and design of the study 2. Concepts and meaning of terms used in the study 3. Derivation of hypothesis 3.1 Conceptual framework and design of the study Small scale tea sector is the ideal example of production system blended with entrepreneurship. Although it is in vogue since 1990s in North Bengal, but very limited studies has been conducted regarding its status, problems and prospects. The present study is an attempt to explore information on small tea growing systems of North Bengal extensively as well to draw conclusions regarding the factors that enhance resorting to tea cultivation; its economic prospects and constraints. The role of different grass root agents and organizations as well as the Tea Board of India can not be ignored for the success of small tea sector. The present study being essentially a descriptive study followed exploratory frame work of study. However, in some cases, to know the influence of different factors and to know the comparative status between space, scale and time, the present study also derived hypotheses and so also followed framework for hypothesis testing. The study adopted cross sectional as well as longitudinal design (small farms of different ages were selected) of research. Chapter-III

46 3.2 Concepts and meaning of terms used in the study T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N Concept of Small Tea Growing (STG) system: The definition of small scale tea cultivation varies from country to country. In Kenya, it means a grower cultivating tea in a small piece of land who does not possess his own tea processing unit. In Srilanka, Small-holding means an area of land under tea less than 50 acres (20.2ha). In case of Indonesia, Small holders are those who grow tea on land size between 0.8 to 2.0 hactare of land and sell tea without processing. Tea Board of India has defined as a Small Tea Growers (STGs) who is having tea plantation upto hactare and not possessing his own tea processing factories. However the average holding size in most countries irrespective of the upper limit, tend to on the lower side. However, in India, the small tea growers are characterized by: 1. A holding size under tea is ha 2. Management of production by his own 3. Not having his own processing unit Prospect of Small Tea Growing System: Prospect, according to Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary, means an apparent probability of advancement or success. It indicates that something has potential for fulfilling a need. The Small Tea Growers phenomenon particularly in North Bengal is relatively a recent one. Majority of STGs have shifted from food and other cash crops into cultivating tea for their livelihood. According to Baruah (2007) the small tea growers, have shared the benefit arising out of large scale tea plantation by the industrial houses in Chapter-III

47 T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N 30 the past, firstly, by providing readymade infrastructure like technology, skilled workers, and market for promoting small scale tea cultivation. Secondly, the high profitability and prospects of getting a steady income with minimum efforts contributed to the growth of small tea growers. Thirdly, tea caught the fancy of educated unemployed youth, who usually shy away doing agricultural chores. According to him youth could find a new avenue for good income in tea cultivation which incidentally suited their fancy and status consciousness. Small scale tea cultivation provides ample avenue for self employment of educated youth besides engaging family members directly with the enterprise. As a prospect of the system, present study addressed economic prospects, changes in the rural socio-economic scenario, employment opportunity of the system and consequently its effect on self employment and migration etc Perspective of Small Tea Growing System Perspective has a Latin root meaning "look through". As a dictionary meaning, perspective means a view or vista; or point of view; or a standpoint; or a position. It is the appearance of viewed objects with regard to their relative position. It is an understanding of how aspects of a subject relate to each other and to the whole. Majority of pineapple growers of Uttar Dinajpur, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts converted their lands from pineapple plantation to tea due to sudden drop of price of pineapple during 1990 and lack of canning/processing factories, cold storage and problems of demand and markets. Recently, the farmers of North Bengal do not hesitate to take up tea plantation by converting their lands from other crops. The trend thus spread every nook and corner of North Bengal expanding the area under Small Tea Growing (STG) sector. This fast growing sector even threatens the traditional crop husbandry system demanding a keen look on the sector from various viewpoints. The present study addressed the status and performance of Small Tea Growing sector in North Bengal from the viewpoint of space (comparison between districts), time (analysis based on age of the farm), scale of production (in relation to size of farm) and Chapter-III

48 T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N 31 also from the standpoint of organizational affinity (comparison between SHG and Non- SHG). The study also addressed the causes of resort to tea and constrains they face taking up such system of production. Specifically, the study considered land utilization pattern in small tea sector, its technological, production and economic aspects, value chain, constraints, causes of resort and underlying factors influencing these scenario Concept of Self-Help Group (SHG) [adoptedfrom: chapter5.pdf and development corporation.org accessed on ] The concept of self help groups had its origin in the co-operative philosophy and the co-operators by and large, including the National Federations in the credit sector, could not think of any better SHG than a primary co-operative credit society itself (TNCDW, 2007) [Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women Ltd. - Credit guidelines for SHGs, Handbook, 2007, p. 5.]. As SHG are small and economically homogenous affinity groups of rural poor, they are voluntarily coming together for achieving the following. 1. To save small amount of money regularly. 2. To mutually agree to contribute a common fund. 3. To meet their emergency needs. 4. To have collective decision making. 5. To solve conflicts through collective leadership mutual discussion. 6. To provide collateral free loan with terms decided by the group at the market driven rates. Today, the self help group movement is increasingly accepted as an innovation in the field of rural credit in many developing countries including India to help the rural poor Chapter-III

49 T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N 32 considered a vehicle to reach the disadvantaged and marginalized section, which in the normal course cannot avail of credit facility from the bank. A self help group is defined as a group consisting of people who have personal experience of a similar issue or life situation, either directly or through their family and friends. Sharing experiences enables them to give each other a unique quality of mutual support and to pool practical information and ways of coping. Self help groups are small informal association of the poor created at the grass root level for the purpose of enabling members to reap economic benefits out of mutual help, solidarily and joint responsibility. Self help groups are formed voluntarily by the rural and urban poor to save and contribute to a common fund to be lent to its members as per group decision and for working together for social and economic uplift of their families and community. A self help group is defined as a "self governed, peer controlled information group of people with similar socio-economic background and having a desire to collectively perform common purpose." Self help group have been able to mobilize small savings either on weekly or monthly basis from persons who were not expected to have any savings. They have been able to effectively recycle the resources generated among the members for meeting the productive and emergent credit needs of members of the group. The Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women Ltd. (TNCDW) in its credit guidelines for the SHGs defines as a small economically homogenous affinity group of rural poor, voluntarily formed to save and contribute to a common fund to be lent to its members as per group decision and for working together for social and economic uplift of their family and community. The distinguishing features of self help groups are given below. i) An SHG normally consists of not less than five persons (with a maximum of twenty) of similar economic outlook and social status. ii) It promotes objectives like economic improvement and raising resources for development and freedom from exploitation. Chapter-III

50 T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N 33 iii) It has its own by-laws for the proper functioning of the group as well as for the observance of certain rules by the group members and regulations concerning membership. iv) The form of such a group could be mostly on an informal basis (unregistered). v) Periodical meetings of members are held for solving their problems (economic and social) and they collect fixed savings of the members. vi) The savings of members are kept with a bank in the name of group and authorized representative of the group operates the bank account. The deposit kept in the bank is used for giving loans to members for purposes including consumption at the rate of interest decided by the group (usually higher than what the banks charge). vii) Sources of funds are the contribution of members savings, entrance fee, interest from loans, proceeds of joint business operation and income from investment. Funds may be used for loans, social services and common investment. The SHG, being a group of like-minded persons, gets empowered to solve most of its problems of a non-financial nature such as raw material and input supply marketing, better adoption of technology, education and training for realization of its objectives for development. The growth of Self Help Groups in NB has been steady. The STGs today feel that the only way to have collective voice and organized bargaining power is to from themselves into Self Help Groups. They are set for bigger participation in the tea industry by establishing this own processing units and do away with the present problems of sale of green leaf where the market is distorted and non-remunerative. The SHG have evinced a strong desire in this direction and it is but expected that Tea Board will go all out to render all possible assistance to make their dream come true Bought leaf factory Bought leaf tea factory means a tea factory which sources not less than two-thirds of its tea leaf requirement from other tea growers during any calendar year for the purpose Chapter-III

51 T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N 34 of manufacture of tea (THE GAZETTE OF INDIA EXTRAORDINARY PART-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE ORDER New Delhi, Dated 1st January, 2003) Private processing unit: It indicates the private establishments who procure green leaf from STGs and process it into made tea. They have a major role in controlling the mechanism of price determination and quality of tea Co-operative processing unit: They are mainly controlled by the co-operative or self help groups. They are processing green leaves of the small farmers who are their members Value chain A value chain is a chain of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for the market. The concept comes from business management and was first described and popularized by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance(Porter, Michael E. (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York.: Simon and Schuster. Retrieved 9 September 2013). According to Kadavil (2012), the value chain concept can also be defined as the combination of design, product development, marketing, production and retailing by which products progress from conception to the final consumer. The tea value chain is acquainted with the role of various stakeholders who control and who add value along the chain. This includes producers including small tea holders, workers, BLF owners, brokers, buyers, blenders and national and international buyers and retailers. According to Neilson and Pritchard (2011) buyers and retailers are the most powerful players in the tea value chain with their control over blending and packaging. Chapter-III

52 T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N Control over value chain: Control over value chain is the share of decision of an individual in the managerial process of the value chain. In the managerial process of a value chain, there are many activities (like price fixation, amount of materials to be purchased and disposed, where to dispose etc.) which determine the effectiveness of the chain in respect of the wellbeing of the individual. In the present study, control over value chain is determined by the extent of consultation taken from the individual STG in decision making process in different stages of value chain Constraints: The word constraint means limitation or restriction or confinement. Here constraints indicates the various limitations faced by the small tea growers at the time of cultivating tea in small scale basis Gender: Gender indicates the state of being male or female. It is typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. Women participation in day to day activities and decision making aspects is quite low in compared to men in small tea sector Family labour Workforce engaged in tea production supplied from the family itself owning the small tea production system Outside labour Workforce engaged in tea production supplied from out of the small tea producer s family. Chapter-III

53 T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N Economic analysis concepts: 1) Profit and cumulative profit: Profit means a financial gain. Here it denotes the difference between the amount earned from tea and the amount spent in producing it. Cumulative profit means successive additions of profits which are gradually build up. 2) B:C ratio or benefit cost ratio: It is the ratio of the benefits of a project or proposal, expressed in monetary terms, relative to its cost, also expressed in monetary terms. It attempts to summarize the overall value of money of a project. 3) Price: The amount of money expected, required or given in payment for something. 4) Fixed and variable cost: Fixed cost means a periodic cost that remains more or less unchanged irrespective of the output level or revenue earned through sale. Fixed cost includes the cost of land, land preparation before planting, cost of planting materials and planting expenditure etc. Whereas variable costs are those costs that vary depending on a enterprise s output or production volume, they rise as production increases and fall as production decreases. It may include wages, utilities, materials used in productions or different costs regarding day to day package of practices. 5) Dividend: A dividend is a payment made to shareholders that is proportional to the number of shares owned. It is authorized by the board of directors. Dividends are usually issued by companies that will not reap significant growth by reinvesting profits, and so instead choose to return funds to shareholders in the form of a dividend. Companies may also issue dividends in order to attract income investors, who are looking for a steady source of income, and which can be reliable long-term holders of company shares. A dividend is a payment made to shareholders that is proportional to the number of shares owned. Here, dividend means the extra profit/remuneration gained by the SHG members Chapter-III

54 T H E O R E T I C A L O R I E N T A T I O N 37 due to their own processing units or lack of middlemen in their value chain system. 3.3 Derivation of Hypothesis Hypo-1: Small Tea Growers are dominated by younger generation and educated farmers Hypo-2: Small tea growers are low achievers in respect of psycho-personal characters Hypo-3: Small Tea Growers are dominated by marginal and small land holders Hypo-4: There are economic and other reasons which attracted farmers of North Bengal in tea cultivation Hypo-5: There is an increasing trend of conversion into tea Hypo-6: There is no difference between the STGs of different districts and between SHG and Non-SHG in respect of Socio-personal characters Hypo-7: There is no difference between the STGs of different districts and between SHG and Non-SHG in respect of performance of tea cultivation (yield and profit). Hypo-9: There is no difference between the STGs of different districts and between SHG and Non-SHG in perception of constraints and causes of resorting tea. Hypo-10: There is no difference in activity and decision participation of male and female in small tea sector. Hypo-11: There is no effect of socio-personal characters on performance in small tea sector and perception of constraints and earliness in resorting tea. Hypo-12: After resorting tea the socio-economic situation and collective capability of the farmers improved. Chapter-III

55 CHAPTER-IV RESEARCH SETTING

56 CHAPTER-IV RESEARCH SETTING This chapter introduces some salient features of the study area where the work has been conducted. The study has been carried out in Jalpaiguri and Utter-Dinajpur district of North Bengal. The setting of this study sought to describe in terms of social, economic, and agricultural aspects of this areas. 4.1 District Jalpaiguri Jalpaiguri is a district of West Bengal situated between and north latitudes and 88.4 and east longitudes, established in 1869 in British India with two Sub-divisions Jalpaiguri Sadar and Malbazar. District.Head Quarter is Jalpaiguri which is also the Divisional Head Quarter of North Bengal. Jalpaiguri district has 750 nos. Mouzas, 13 nos. Blocks,146 nos. of Gram Panchayets,742 nos. inhabited villages and 158 nos. of Tea Estates. This piece of land has been aptly named as the land of Tea, Timber and Tourism. This district is blessed with rich reserves of forest resources. The forest,covering 1,79,000 hactares of land which is 27.8% of the total geographical areas, are home to a fascinating variety of flora and fauna. Timber and fuel are the major forest product. A major stretch of area is bordered in the north by Bhutan and hence the name DOOARS which mean door of Bhutan. Geography: The district situated in the northern part of West Bengal has international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh in the north and south respectively and the district borders with Darjeeling hills in the west and north west and Alipur and CoochBehar district on the east. National protected areas includes the Gorumara National Park and Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary. Climate: Jalpaiguri is part of monsoon climate zone of South Eastern Asia. May is the hottest month of the region and average maximum temperature of about 32 degree celcious where as January is the coldest month with 11 degree celcious. Hightest ever recorded max. and min. temperature are 40 and 2 degree celcious. Average annual humidity is of 82%, and annual average rainfall is 3160 mm. December is the driest month with average rainfall 0.2mm and July is wettest with 809.3mm. Chapter-IV

57 R E R E S E A R C H S E T T I N G 39 Topography:The district topography wears a mixed look- consisting both of hilly and undulating plains coupled with vast flat plains. The entire topography is criss-crossed with rivulets, river and hills veined by mighty rivers like Teesta, Torsa, Jaldhaka,Raidak, Dyna, Neora, Sankosh etc. The soil of this region ranges from alluvial soil to sandy and clayey soil. The alluvial soil is brought down by hilly rivers like Teesta, Torsa, Mahananda. The soil can be broadly classified under two heads-a)the terai soil, covering almost the entire district and b)the brown forest soil covering the northern foot hills of the district. However, the soil is predominately sandy and hence porus with low water holding capacity. In the upper region to the north of the Dooars, the soil is mainly hard,black and clayey.the soil is suitable for growing tea which is a major cash crop of this region. In the lower plain land the soil consists of a mix of both clay and sand. Economy: The total agricultural area of this district is 3,34,127 hactare. More than 89% of the population are supported by agriculture, a large proportion than any district of West Bengal.According to 2001 census number of agricultural labours of this district is 2,30,363, among which 1,30,124 nos. are male and 1,00,239 nos. are female. The dominant agricultural product is Jute and Tobacco. Paddy is also grown before and after rainy season. The alluvial soil is fertile enough for the crops like Paddy, Jute and tea to be grown. This Common plantation crops like Areca, Coconut, Blackpepper etc, Vegetable, Mustard, Potato cultivation are increasing.day by day. Recently Tea has been covered a large area of field crops. Agricultural activities of this district is largely dependent on the various irrigation projects which have been built on these rivers. 33% of the potentially cultivable land is developed for irrigation. The net irrigated area is around hactare. The cropping intensity of this district is 142%. Demographics: According to 2011 cencus Jalpaiguri district has a population of 3,869,675.This gives it a ranking of 66 th in India.The district has a population density of 621 inhabitants per sqkm. Population growth rate over the decade was 33.77%. Sex ratio of 954 female for every 1000 males.literacy rate of 73.79%. Main languages include Bengali, Hindi and Nepali. Chapter-IV

58 R E R E S E A R C H S E T T I N G District Uttar Dinajpur Uttar Dinajpur district is a district of NorthBengal,created on 1 April,1992 by the division of the erstwhile West Dinajpur district comprises Sub-divisions Raiganj and Islampur with 9 Blocks and 99 Panchayets covering 1577 villages. Raiganj on the river Kulik is the District Head Quarter where the Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary,the second largest bird sanctuary in Asia is situated. Geography: This district lies between latitude N to N and longitude E to E occupying an area of 3142 sq km enclosed by Bangladesh on the east, Kisanganj, Purnia and Katihar district of Bihar on the west, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri district on the north and Malda, Dakshin Dinajpur district on south.state high way NH-31, NH-34 pass through the heart of the district. Climate: Average temperature of this district varies from 18.6 degree celcious (Min) to 29.2 degree celcious (max).and average rainfall remains between 1900 to 2000mm where as maximum rainfall recorded as 2400 mm. Average annual relative humidity shows maximum of 90.8%. and minimum is of 63.8%. Topography: Topography is generally flat with a gentle southerly slope towards which the main river like Kulik,Nagar, Mahananda flows. The older alluvium is estimated to be Pleistocene age.uttar Dinajpur is bestowed with a very fertile soil.the soil is very rich in nature due to alluvial deposition which helps to grow paddy,jute,mesta,sugarcane etc.,the soil Ph observed is Economy: In 2006, the Ministry of Panchayeti Raj named Uttar Dinajpur district as one of the country s most backward district. Now Dalkhola is the main commercial and business town with well connected railway and roadways. Jute, Til and Vegetables are cultivated as Pre-Kharif crop,aman paddy as Kharif and Wheat,Oilseed,Potato and Vegetables are cultivated as Rabi season crop. Now-a-days Tea has been started as cashcrop resorting from Pineapple cultivation. 2,39,500 families of this district is totally depended on agriculture, among them 1,35,827 nos. are marginal and 88,536 nos. are small farmers. Chapter-IV

59 R E R E S E A R C H S E T T I N G 41 Plate-1: Map of Jalpaiguri showing the areas of study 4.3 Description of different blocks of Jalpaiguri district under study Jalpaiguri Community Development Block: This block is located south-western part of the district. It is an administrative division in Jalpaiguri Sadar Subdivision of Jalpaiguri district. This block is surrounded by Malbazar block in the north, Rajganj block and Uttar-Dinajpur district in the west, Haldibari block and Bangladesh in the south and Mainaguri, Dhupguri block and CoochBehar district in the east. Jalpaiguri Police station serves the block. The block head quarter is jalpaiguri,which is well connected with other district or blocks through bus or rail. NH-31 passes through the block. Chapter-IV

60 R E R E S E A R C H S E T T I N G 42 Geographically Jalpaiguri Sadar Block located N E.It is 89 metre above mean sea level. The climate of this block is under monsoon climatic zone with rainfall is around 3000mm.The topography is flat and the soil of this block is clay to sandy-loamy in nature with Ph The traditional crops are rice, jute, patato, wheat or mustard. Recently a large amount of cultivated area has been shifted to tea cultivation. The area of this block is sqkm..There are 14 Gram Panchayets and 29 nos of inhabited villages is under of this block. Density of this block is 570/sq km.as per 2001 census, Jalpaiguri Sadar Block had a total population of 2,80,446, out of which 1,44,974 male and 1,35,472 were female. Kuripara/Berubari area were selected as SHG and Mohitnagar/Goralbari area has been selected as non-shg area from Jalpaiguri Community Development Block for study. It is also observed there is a processing unit existing in Kuripara/Berubari area was run by the SHG members. Mainaguri Community Development Block: This block is also an administrative division in Jalpaiguri Sadar Sub division of Jalpaiguri district.the head quarter of this block is Mainaguri, which is around 20 km away from Jalpaiguri, the district head quarter. Mainaguri block is located N E which is surrounded by Jalpaiguri block towards west, Dhupguri block towards east, Haldibari block towards south and Mal block towards north. The total area of this block is sqkm with population density 450/sq km. The elevation is 87 metre above mean sea level. The soil and topography is almost same as Jalpaiguri block with same cropping pattern observed. There are 16 Gram Panchayets and 79 nos. inhabited villages under this block.the total population of this block, according to 2001 census,was 2,81,554,out of which 1,45,557 were male and 1,35,997 female. Panbari/Jalpesh area of this block is highly dominated by SHG members. On an average more than 300 SHG farmers are existing there. They have possessing their own processing units. Khagrabari/Domohoni area were selected as Non-SHG area from this block. Chapter-IV

61 R E R E S E A R C H S E T T I N G 43 Plate-2: Map of Uttar Dinajpur showing study areas Chapter-IV

62 R E R E S E A R C H S E T T I N G Description of different blocks of Uttar- Dinajpur district under study: Chopra Community Development Block: This block under Islampur Subdivision of Uttar-Dinajpur district and established in Block is surrounded by Darjeeling district towards north, Bihar towards west, Bangladesh towards east and Islampur block towards south. Geographically this block is located at N and E. Topography is almost flat. Dock and Mahananda are the main rivers. Soil is alluvial in nature which is very fertile. Paddy, Jute, Maize, Sugarcane etc are the main crops. Recently Pineapple plantation of this block has been resorted to tea plantation, both small and large scale. Chopra block has an area of area of sqkm.there are 8 nos. of Gram Panchayets and 39 nos. of inhabited villages under this block. According to 2001 census Chopra had a total population of 2,83,761, out of which 1,46,735 were male and 1,37,026 were female. Dangapara/Daspara and Babugach/Sonapur area of Chopra block is dominated by both SHG and Non-SHG farmers. First cluster was selected for SHG farmers and second cluster was taken for non-shg farmers. Islampur Community Development Block: Islampur block is an administrative division in Islampur Sub-division of Uttar-Dinajpur district. It is surrounded by Chopra block towards north-east, Goalpokhar block towards south, Bihar towards west and Bangladesh towards east. Geographically this block is located at N and E. Topography is flat with a slight southern slope. Soil is fertile, alluvial in nature, conducive for planting different field crops. Agricultural activities are largely depended on irrigation. Paddy, Jute, Mesta, Wheat, Potato, Vegetables and Tea are the main crops. Rainfall is 2400mm per year.drought like situation arised here in 2006 and Islampur CDB has an area of sq km. It has 13 nos. Gram Panchayets and 43 nos. inhabited villages. As per 2001 census, this block had a population of 2,41,910. Literacy rate of this block is 60.46% and almost 48% population is Muslim. Chapter-IV

63 R E R E S E A R C H S E T T I N G 45 Patagora/Daulatagach area of this block is dominated by SHG members. SHG farmers were selected from this area for study. Ramganj/Sarkunda area of this block is dominated by Non-SHG members. Therefore Non-SHG farmers were randomly identified for study from this area. Like Chopra block, this block also does not possess any own processing unit run by SHGs. Chapter-IV

64 CHAPTER-V RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

65 CHAPTER-V RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Systematic methodology is a pre-requisite of a research study, as it has direct bearing on the relevance and validity of research findings. This chapter deals with the methodology utilized for studying the agro-economic and socio-personal characteristics as well as the status of small tea growers in relation to production and marketing of the produce in North Bengal. The chapter comprises the following sections 1. Selection of area of study and individual respondents 2. The data collection tool description of the schedule 3. Selection and measurement of variables 4. Derived variables computed from primary variables for comparison and analysis 5. Data processing, tabulation and procedure used for analysis 5.1 Selection of area of study and individual respondents Selection of area of study From the reports of tea board (Table-5.1) it is found that among the four tea producing districts of North Benal, Jalpaiguri and Uttar Dinajpur comprises about 80% of small tea growers and so these two districts were purposively selected. Among these two districts the specific areas where the tea concentration was high were selected again purposively in consultation with the personnels of CISTA. Higher concentration of small tea growers is found in Jalpaiguri sub-division of Jalpaiguri district and Islampur subdivision of Uttar-Dinajpur district. So, these two sub-divisions were taken. Finally Chapter-V

66 M E T H O D O L O G Y 47 individual tea growers from different patches of these sub-divisions were selected. Care was taken to select the areas to make the sample representative (Refer Table-5.2 for scheme of selection of area). Table-5.1: Status of Small Tea Growers (as on ) District Uttar- Dinajpur Jalpaiguri Darjeeling Coochbehar Total No. of STG Area ( ha) Average farm size (ha) 10,397 10, ,777 8, ,637 4, , ,352 25, SOURCE: Tea-Board (2009) Selection of respondents Random sampling was employed to select the respondents. Sampling is defined as a part of population selected for drawing conclusions regarding population. Random sampling is the term applied when the method of selection assumes each individual or element an equal chance of being chosen. A random sample is more suitable in more homogenous and comparatively larger groups. Hundred farmers from each district have been selected for interview. Grass root organizations like SHG have a positive effect on tea cultivation and in North Bengal the development of SHG is steady. The small tea growers are establishing their own SHG, although in a slow rate to get benefit from Tea board (Table-5.1). So, SHG areas were also selected for the study. 100 respondents from each district from the study areas were selected randomly of which 50% were the members of SHGs. So, altogether 200 small tea growers (100 SHG and 100 non-shg growers) were chosen randomly. Chapter-V

67 M E T H O D O L O G Y 48 Table-5.2 Scheme of Sampling North Bengal Method Jalpaiguri Uttar Dinajpur Purposive Jalpaiguri Sadar Mainaguri Islampur Chopra Purposive SHG Non-SHG SHG Non-SHG SHG Non-SHG SHG Non-SHG Purposive Kuripara, Sanyakuthi Mohitnagar Garalbari Panbari Jalpesh Khagrabari Domohoni Doulatagach Patagora Sarkunda Jagtagaon Dangapara Daspara Babugach Sonapur Purposive 25 farmers from each area were randomly selected. Thus 100 from each district; and 100 from SHG and 100 from non-shg areas. (Total sample=200) Random Chapter-V

68 M E T H O D O L O G Y 49 Table-5.3 No. of SHGs in Jalpaiguri and Uttar Dinajpur District No. of SHG No. of members Area (ha) Being active Being nonactive Jalpaiguri Uttar Dinajpur SOURCE: Tea-Board (2009) 5.2 The data collection tool description of the schedule The present study mainly considered primary data for analysis. Primary data were collected through group and individual interview schedule. However, small amount of secondary data were also collected from records of CISTA and SHG registers. Development and pre-testing of the interview schedule Schedule can be defined as a device, a set of questions which are asked and filled by the interviewer in a face to face situation with another person. It aims of testing an assumption or hypothesis. For the present study a schedule is prepared after completion of pre-testing procedures of data collection. The entire schedule is divided into different sections. An interview schedule was specially prepared for collecting information from the respondents, keeping in view the focus objectives and variables of the present study. The draft schedule was pre-tested with ten non-sample respondents from each district before administering over the actual respondents. On the basis of the analysis of these data and suggestions made by these respondents, the schedule was revised and modified with appropriate wordings and contents. Pre-testing helps in ensuring the validity of some measures under local conditions. Chapter-V

69 M E T H O D O L O G Y 50 Interviewing and collection of data through Schedule: Interview: Interviewing is regarded as systematic method of data collection in a face to face situation where researcher puts a set of pre determined questions to the respondents so as to get information pertaining to a research problem. 5.3 Selection and measurement of variables Socio-economic and personal variables: Social variables like caste, religion and family information, personal variables like age, education, family education status, communication and extension media contact, organizational participation, outside contact (cosmopoliteness), self confidence, leadership, innovativeness and economic variables like primary and secondary occupation; land holding status and land characteristics and occupation, economic status were taken into account for study. Variables related to production and marketing status of tea: Area under tea, level of technology adoption, employment generation, and contribution of tea in family livelihood, production of tea, cost and benefit, farmers control on market were taken for analysis. Women, constraints and organizational role related variables: Participation, level of constraint, role were taken as variable. The variables which can be directly measured were taken as the direct numerical values. Qualitative variables were assigned scores following different scales proposed by different authors. For some important aspects constructs were developed for comparison and measurement. The detailed method of measurement is mentioned in the following section. Scores were assigned following the scales proposed by Lynton and Pareek (1965), Nandapurkar (1985), Supe (2007) and Bhiramkar (2009) wherever necessary. Age: Direct numerical values taken as variable. Chapter-V

70 M E T H O D O L O G Y 51 Caste: The scale composed of 'Scheduled Tribe', 'Scheduled Caste', 'Other Backward Class' and 'General'. Because it is a categorical variable no score were assigned. Education: The scale composed of 'illiterate'; 'primary'; 'middle class'; 'high school' and 'graduate and above' with corresponding scores '0', '1', '2','3','4','5' respectively. family. Occupation diversity: Directly taken as the number of occupation found in the Size of Land holding: Direct numerical values taken as variable. Organisational participation: A list of organization were exposed against the scale values of 0=no; 1=member; 2=office bearer; 3=leader. The sum of scores was taken as the value of the variable. Economic status: It was measured with the conditions of house, sanitation and drinking water facilities and asset possession with scores (refer schedule). The sum total of scores was taken as the variable values. Communication with extension worker/organisation: The scale composed on the frequency of communication with extension worker or any other organisation and scale prepared having score of '0' to '4'. The corresponding responses were never'; 'rarely'; 'sometime'; 'often' and 'most often'. Extension media contact: The scale composed based on the extent of use of a list of mass media and interpersonal channels and scale prepared having score of '0', 1 and '2' with corresponding responses of never'; 'sometimes' and 'regular'. Cosmopoliteness : Ketz (1964), Rogers and Shoemaker (1971) defined cosmopoliteness as the mobility of individual outside his/her social system. They also observed that cosmopoliteness also reveals openness to the rational evaluation of a proposed change and a willingness for contact with the world outside their communities. The responses regarding the frequency of visit of the respondents to the district head quarters (every six months), Mahakuma head quarters (every months), nearest town (every week),other state town (every six months), and state head quarters (every six months) have been measured. Chapter-V

71 M E T H O D O L O G Y 52 Variables related to production and marketing status of tea, women participation, constraints and organizational role were derived from the output of the following information collected by the information schedule. Land holding and cultivation status: It involves land details including land area, texture and topography of land, irrigation status, whether depended on tea cultivation, secondary occupation other than tea etc. Self confidence: Scale developed following the methods of Basavanna (1974) and Patil (1999). A number of statement were exposed to the respondent against different levels of agreement viz. strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with +2 to -2 scores. Innovativeness: A number of statements were exposed to the respondent against different levels of respondent (refer Schedule). Leadership: Scale developed following Nandapurkar (1981). A number of statement were exposed to the respondent against responses of never, sometimes and always with 0, 1 and 2 scores. Reasons for resorting tea cultivation: Here eleven numbers of statements were placed before respondents regarding the advantages of tea cultivation in comparison to other traditional cropping system. The respondents were exposed against different levels of agreement viz. strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with +2 to -2 scores (refer schedule for reasons). The reasons were first collected from review of literature and consultation with experts. This list of causes was exposed to selected non-sample respondents in pilot survey to add or delete the statements. From this extended lists those statements were retained which had got positive responses from at least one of the respondents. Changes of family after resorting small scale tea cultivation: Here some situations are given such as, food security,housing,sanitation and drinking condition, using modern household appliances or luxury goods or ornaments, tendency of savings with banks or borrowing money, health security, school going of children,enjoying travels or festivals etc. The respondents are asked to respond each situation in any of the Chapter-V

72 M E T H O D O L O G Y 53 following way such as improved, remained same or deteriorated. Accordingly scores have been given such as for improved change 3 points has been given, for remained same category 2 points has been provided and for deteriorated condition 1 point has been allotted. Accordingly total score have been calculated and changes of family after resorting have been measured. This type of scaling is based on Likert type of scaling but modification has been done according to necessity. Changes in locality: Some locality conditions were exposed to the respondents and measured against the responses of highly deteriorated; moderately deteriorated; deteriorated; no change; improved; moderately improved; highly improved with -3 to +3 scores (refer schedule for statements). Variables related to cultivation of crops other than tea: Variables as area under other crops, purpose of cultivation (with scale statements as only home consumption, surplus marketing and only for marketing with score 1, 2, 3 respectively); and level of profitability (with scale statements as not profitable, more or less profitable and highly profitable with corresponding score of 1, 2 and 3 respectively). Variables related to tea cultivation: This included tea cultivation status of the respondents in respect of area (in acre), year of establishment, variety, spacing, details about shade tree, basal manurial dose, irrigation status, adjacent crops, average yield potentiality (in qt per acre per year), labour employment scenario, price of green leaves, and the constrains faced during tea cultivation. Constrains of tea cultivation: The respondents were exposed against some constraints with different levels of responses of low, medium and high with 1, 2 and 3 scores respectively. different levels of agreement viz. strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with +2 to -2 scores (refer schedule for reasons). The list of constraints was first collected from review of literature and in consultation with experts. This list of constraints was exposed to selected non-sample respondents in pilot survey to add or delete the constraint statements. From this extended lists those statements were retained which had scored some score. Chapter-V

73 M E T H O D O L O G Y Derived variables computed from primary variables for comparison and analysis 1. Women participation index For calculating extent of involvement in tea cultivation activity and decisionmaking, two indices were developed in this study as follows. Activity-Involvement Index (AII) And, = Decision-Involvement Index (DII) = Score in activity and decision arena were assigned through a scale composed of 'independent participation, 'joint participation' and 'no participation' with '2', '1' and '0' scores respectively. variables. These two indices in respect of all enterprise/crop/areas were taken as dependent 2. Role performance Index of Tea Board and SHGs Role performance index was perceived as sum of the fractions of people served by different role fields of tea board or Self-Help Groups (SHGs). It can be expressed with the following Index:!" #$ = '( & * Where, fi = number of farmers got served in the specified role field n = total number of role fields of SHG/Tea Board N = total number of farmers Chapter-V

74 M E T H O D O L O G Y 55 Performance of small tea growing system: Performance of a system can be measured from different view points. On a broad sense, performance of a system can be measured in relation to its inherent efficiency (its input-output relationship) and its effectiveness in the broad domain (its fitness as a new livelihood system). The present study assessed the performance of individual small tea growing system in the perspective of the above mentioned criteria and made a construct (as Performance Index) to measure quantitatively and compare between individual systems. To develop the Performance Index, the method proposed by Kaufman et al. (2007) and Foa & Tanner (2011) were followed. The broad indicators and scales considered for the purpose are mentioned in the following table: Table-5.4 Indicators and scales for development of construct of performance Indicators Benefit-Cost ratio Perceived change in individual livelihood / household (vide sec-5.3 or specific fields of change) Share of family income received from tea cultivation Scales System efficiency Actual numerical value was considered. System effectiveness Vide sec-5.3 for specific fields of change and scales adopted for measurement Percentage of total income comes from tea Method of selection and aggregation -- Vide sec-5.3 for method of selection of change fields. Total perception score was taken as variable -- System performance was the weighted average of the transformed values for system efficiency and system effectiveness. The actual values for the indicators of system efficiency and system fitness were transformed by the formula) Transformed value = #D;F.@;AB>CD<=.@;AB>$ Chapter-V

75 M E T H O D O L O G Y 56 Performance Groups Performer Index Value Low upto 1.00 Moderate >1.00 to 2.00 High >2.00 Secondary sources of data collection: Information from secondary sources like Tea Board, govt publication, research paper, reports published by small tea growers association North-Bengal (like CISTA) and other public documents. 5.5 Data processing, tabulation and procedure used for analysis Data Processing The scrutiny of the collected data was done carefully. All the schedules were numbered serially to facilitate tabulation. The data so collected were transferred to the MS Office worksheet to facilitate statistical analysis. They were processed, tabulated, classified, analysed and given statistical treatments. Statistical Methods Used The statistical methods in this study include mean, percentage, simple correlation, rank order correlation, student t-test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test and regression analysis. Mean The arithmetic mean is the average, which is most easily computed and understood, for it is calculated as the sum of the items divided by the number of items. The symbol for the mean is X (read as X bar). The formula for the mean of a series of numbers is as follows X= G H Where, X- represents items to be averaged and N- represents the number of items. Chapter-V

76 M E T H O D O L O G Y 57 Percentage Percentage is used for making simple comparisons. For calculating percentages, the frequency of the particular cell was divided by the total number of respondents in that particular category and multiplied by 100. Percentage was calculated upto two places after the decimal points. Percentage = Frequency 100 N Where, N - represents the number of respondents Pearson's coefficient of correlation (simple correlation) It is most widely used method of measuring the degree of relationship between two variables. This coefficient assumes the following: (a) that there is linear relationship between the two variables. (b) that the two variables are casually related which means that one on the variable is independent and the other one is dependent (c) a large number of independent causes are operating in both variables so as to produce a normal distribution. Pearson s coefficient of correlation can be worked out thus = n.σx.σy Where, r = coefficient of correlation X i = i th value of X variable X = mean of X variable Y i = i th value of Y variable Chapter-V

77 M E T H O D O L O G Y 58 Y = mean of Y variable N = number of pairs of observations of X and Y σ X = standard deviation of X variables σ Y = standard deviation of Y variables Pearson's coefficient of correlation 'r' lies between ± 1. Positive values of 'r' indicate positive correlation between the two variables i.e. changes in both variables take place in the same direction, whereas negative valued of 'r' indicate negative correlation i.e. changes in the two variables taking place in the opposite directions. A zero value of 'r' indicates that there is no association between the two variables. When r = (+) 1, it indicates perfect positive correlation and when it is (-) 1, it indicates perfect negative correlation, meaning thereby that variations in independent variable (X) explain 100% of the variations in the dependent variable (Y). We can also say that for a unit change in independent variable, if there happens to be a constant change in the dependent variable in the same direction, then correlation will be termed as perfect positive. But if such change occurs in the opposite direction, the correlation will be termed as perfect negative. The value of 'r' nearer to +1 or -1 indicates high degree of correlation between the two variables. Rank Order Correlation In statistics, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient or Spearman' 's rho, named after Charles Spearman and often denoted by the Greek letter (rho) or as, is a nonparametric measure of relationship between two variables. It assesses how well the relationship between two variables can be described using a monotonic function. If there are no repeated data values, a perfect Spearman correlation of +1 or 1 occurs when each of the variables is a perfect monotone function of the other. Spearman's coefficient, like any correlation calculation, is appropriate for both continuous and discrete variables, including ordinal variables. Spearman's can be formulated as special cases of a more a general correlation coefficient. Chapter-V

78 M E T H O D O L O G Y 59 The Spearman correlation coefficient is defined as the Pearson correlation coefficient between the ranked variables. For a sample of size n, the n raw scores are converted to ranks, and ρ is computed from: where, is the difference between ranks. The sign of the Spearman correlation indicates the direction of association between X (the independent variable) and Y (the dependent variable). If Y tends to increase when X increases, the Spearman correlation coefficient is positive. If Y tends to decrease when X increases, the Spearman correlation coefficient is negative. A Spearman correlation of zero indicates that there is no tendency for Y to either increase or decrease when X increases. The Spearman correlation increases in magnitude as X and Y become closer to being perfect monotone functions of each other. When X and Y are perfectly monotonically related, the Spearman correlation coefficient becomes 1. Student s t-test A t-test is any statistical hypothesis test in which the test statistic follows a Student's t distribution if the null hypothesis is supported. It can be used to determine if two sets of data are significantly different from each other, and is most commonly applied when the test statistic would follow a normal distribution if the value of a scaling term in the test statistic were known. When the scaling term is unknown and is replaced by an estimate based on the data, the test statistic (under certain conditions) follows a Student's t distribution. This test is only used when both: The two sample sizes (that is, the number, n, of participants of each group) are equal; It can be assumed that the two distributions have the same variance. Chapter-V

79 M E T H O D O L O G Y 60 Violations of these assumptions are discussed below. The t statistic to test whether the means are different can be calculated as follows: Where, Here is the grand standard deviation (or pooled standard deviation), 1 = group one, 2 = group two. and are the unbiased estimators of the variances of the two samples. The denominator of t is the standard error of the difference between two means. For significance testing, the degrees of freedom for this test are 2n 2 where n is the number of participants in each group. Equal or unequal sample sizes, equal variance This test is used only when it can be assumed that the two distributions have the same variance. (When this assumption is violated, see below.) The t statistic to test whether the means are different can be calculated as follows: Where Note that the formulae above are generalizations of the case where both samples have equal sizes (substitute n for n 1 and n 2 ). Chapter-V

80 M E T H O D O L O G Y 61 Sx 1 x 2 is an estimator of the common standard deviation of the two samples; it is defined in this way so that its square is an unbiased of the common variance whether or not the population means are the same. In these formulae, n = number of participants, 1 = group one, 2 = group two. n 1 is the number of degrees of freedom for either group, and the total sample size minus two (that is, n 1 + n 2 2) is the total number of degrees of freedom, which is used in significance testing. Equal or unequal sample sizes, unequal variances This test, also knownn as Welch's t-test, is used only when the two population variances are not assumed to be equal (the two sample sizes may or may not be equal) and hence must be estimated separately. The t statistic to test whether the population means are different is calculated as: Where, Here s 2 is the unbiased estimator of the variance of the two samples, n i = number of participants in group i, i= =1 or 2. Note that in this case is not a pooled variance. For use in significance testing, the distribution of the test statistic is approximated as an ordinary Student's t distribution with the degrees of freedom calculated using This is known as the Welch Satterthwaite equation. The true distribution of the test statistic actually depends (slightly) on the two unknown population variances (see Behrens Fisher problem) ). Chapter-V

81 M E T H O D O L O G Y 62 Researches have found that the null hypothesis is a useful tool in testing the significance of differences. In its simplest form, this hypothesis asserts that there is no true difference between two population means. Let us consider two samples with X 1 and X 2. We are interested to know whether there is any actual difference between these two population (from which samples are drawn) means. In such situation 't' test is applied. For 't' test the following formula was used. Where, Where X 1 and X 2 = means of two samples; s x1 and s x2 = standard deviation of the two samples; n 1 and n 2 = sizes of the samples. The calculated values were compared with the table values Fisher and Yates table with (n 1 + n 2-2) degrees of freedom. of t from Wilcoxon Rank-sum Test The Wilcoxon rank-sum test is a nonparametric alternative to the twosample t-test which is based solely on the order in which the observations from the two samples fall. In statistics, the Mann Whitney U test (also called the Mann Whitney Wilcoxon (MWW), Wilcoxon rank-sum test (WRS), or Wilcoxon Mann Whitney test) is a nonparametric test of the null hypothesis that two populations are the same against an alternative hypothesis, especially that a particular population tends to have larger values than the other. Chapter-V

82 M E T H O D O L O G Y 63 It has greater efficiency than the t-test on non-normal distributions, such as a mixture of normal distributions, and it is nearly as efficient as the t-test on normal distributions. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test is not the same as the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, although both are nonparametric and involve summation of ranks. Steps for computation 1. Assign numeric ranks to all the observations, beginning with 1 for the smallest value. Where there are groups of tied values, assign a rank equal to the midpoint of unadjusted rankings [e.g., the ranks of (3, 5, 5, 9) are (1, 2.5, 2.5, 4)]. 2. Now, add up the ranks for the observations which came from sample 1. The sum of ranks in sample 2 is now determinate, since the sum of all the ranks equals N(N + 1)/2 where N is the total number of observations. 3. U is then given by: Where, n 1 is the sample size for sample 1, and R 1 is the sum of the ranks in sample 1. Note that it doesn't matter which of the two samples is considered sample 1. An equally valid formula for U is The smaller value of U 1 and U 2 is the one used when consulting significance tables. The sum of the two values is given by Chapter-V

83 M E T H O D O L O G Y 64 Knowing that R 1 + R 2 = N(N + 1)/2 and N = n 1 + n 2, and doing some algebra, we find that the sum is The maximum value of U is the product of the sample sizes for the two samples. In such a case, the "other" U would be 0. Multiple regression It is an extension of simple linear regression. It is used when we want to predict the value of a variable based on the value of two or more other variables. The variable we want to predict is called the dependent variable (or sometimes, the outcome, target or criterion variable). In statistics, regression analysis is a statistical process for estimating the relationships among variables. It includes many techniques for modelling and analysing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. More specifically, regression analysis helps one understand how the typical value of the dependent variable (or 'criterion variable') changes when any one of the independent variables is varied, while the other independent variables are held fixed. Most commonly, regression analysis estimates the conditional expectation of the dependent variable given the independent variables that is, the average value of the dependent variable when the independent variables are fixed. Less commonly, the focus is on a quantile, or other location parameter of the conditional distribution of the dependent variable given the independent variables. In all cases, the estimation target is a function of the independent variables called the regression function. In regression analysis, it is also of interest to characterize the variation of the dependent variable around the regression function which can be described by a probability distribution. In general, the multiple regression equation of Y on X 1, X 2,, X k is given by: Y = b 0 + b1 X 1 + b 2 X b k X k Here b 0 is the intercept and b 1, b 2, b 3,, b k are analogous to the slope in linear regression equation and are also called regression coefficients. They can be interpreted the Chapter-V

84 M E T H O D O L O G Y 65 same way as slope. Thus if b i = 2.5, it would indicates that Y will increase by 2.5 units if X i increased by 1 unit. The appropriateness of the multiple regression model as a whole can be tested by the F-test in the ANOVA table. A significant F indicates a linear relationship between Y and at least one of the X's. Once a multiple regression equation has been constructed, one can check how good it is (in terms of predictive ability) by examining the coefficient of determination (R 2 ). R 2 always lies between 0 and 1. R 2 - coefficient of determination Assumptions Multiple regression technique does not test whether data are linear. On the contrary, it proceeds by assuming that the relationship between the Y and each of X i 's is linear. Hence as a rule, it is prudent to always look at the scatter plots of (Y, X i ), i= 1, 2,,k. If any plot suggests non linearity, one may use a suitable transformation to attain linearity. Another important assumption is non existence of multicollinearity - the independent variables are not related among themselves. At a very basic level, this can be tested by computing the correlation coefficient between each pair of independent variables. Multiple regression analysis is used when one is interested in predicting a continuous dependent variable from a number of independent variables. If dependent variable is dichotomous, then logistic regression should be used. Analysis of data The data were analysed with the application of statistical software. SPSS analysis tool pack, MS Office Excel VBA tool pack and Solstat statistical softwares were used for analysis. The data were interpreted in the light of the objective and hypothesis of the study. Chapter-V

85 CHAPTER-VI RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

86 CHAPTER-VI RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The chapter systematically presents the findings of the study along with the discussion based on analysis. The study tried to represent its findings as per the objectives of the study keeping in mind the title of the study viz. perspectives and the prospects. The findings are presented as per the following sections: 6.1 Socio-personal and agro-economic perspectives of Small Tea Growers of North Bengal 6.2 Scenario of resorting tea cultivation in North Bengal 6.3 Production scenario in small tea sector in North Bengal 6.4 Employment generation in small tea sector 6.5 Marketing and value chain in small tea sector in North Bengal 6.6 Economics of small tea growing system 6.7 Role of Tea Board and Self-Help Groups in small tea sector in North Bengal 6.8 Women participation in small tea sector in North Bengal 6.9 Constraints analysis in small tea sector in North Bengal 6.1 Socio-personal and agro-economic perspectives of Small Tea Growers of North Bengal Socio-personal and agro-economic characters are the important determinants of human behaviour towards some action. These characteristics can explain the inherent causes of diversity in action and decision making between different groups of people. It is imperative to study these characters in any social science research to understand the overall as well as area-specific features of different variables under investigation. The present section presents the distribution of small tea-growers according to different social characters (viz. religion and caste); economic characters (viz. economic and occupational class, occupational diversity in family and economic status of the family) and personal characters (viz. respondent s age, family size, respondent s education and highest family education, extension media contact, outside contact, organisational participation, self confidence level, innovativeness and leadership). Chapter-VI

87 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N Distribution of Small Tea Growers of North Bengal according to different socio- personal characters Table-6.1 presented the distribution of respondents according to age and family size. Nearest chronological age of the respondent and number of family members were directly considered for analysis although in case of family size, families having number of members upto 4 was considered as small, number from 5 to 7 was considered as medium and more than seven was considered as large size family. It is evident from the table that 74% respondents were from the category of middle and younger age groups and only 26% were falling in old age group. i.e more than 50 years. Here we can say that the small tea cultivation in North Bengal is dominated by younger and middle aged cultivars. This is one of the welcoming features in small tea sector. It has opened a new way of self-employment opportunity for the working age population in North-Bengal area. The present finding is also supported by Majumdar (2008). He showed that 51% of the respondents of North- Bengal belonging to age group of years and only 20% of the respondents are above 50 years old. In his opinion 80% of the respondents are falling within younger and middle age group. Table 6.1: Distribution of small tea-growers of North Bengal according to age and family size Age Age (yr) Frequency Percentage Upto > No. of family members small (Upto 4) Medium (5-7) Large (>7) Family Size Frequency Percentage Small scale tea provides ample avenue for self employment of unemployed youth besides engaging the middle aged rural people with the enterprise. Chapter-VI

88 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 68 From the table it is also indicated that 52% respondents were from small family size, 46.50% from middle family size and only 1.5% respondents were belonging to large family structure that had family members more than 7. We can make conclusion that small and medium family holders are involved in small tea cultivation rather than cultivars from large family. Fig. 6.1 (A to D) depicts the distribution of small tea growers of North Bengal according to religion, caste, economic class and occupation other than tea in the family. From the pie chart 6.1A, it is evident that 85 per cent of STGs of the study area were Hindu and only 15 per cent were Muslims. None other religious groups were associated with small production of tea, although some of the tribal groups are religiously Christian in Jalpaiguri district. Fig. 6.1B distributed STGs according to caste which shows that the Other Backward Classes were the dominant Castes who were associated with STG system followed by SC and General castes. Only 2 per cent STs were associated with STGs; which also support the finding of Fig 6.1a that although a section of tribes are Christian but among tribes only 2 per cent (Christian Tribes may not be considered as respondent ) are associated with STGs. Fig. 6.1C and Fig. 6.1D represents the economic class and occupational distribution respectively which shows that 70 per cent STGs were under APL class and 82 per cent STGs were associated with farming including tea cultivation. Other occupations including tea were business, service and others like contract job, private tuition etc which contribute only 1% of total STGs. Table 6.2 represents the distribution of small tea-growers of North Bengal according to respondent s education and highest family education. In case of educational measurement the class system (year of total formal education) as prescribed in India were taken. However total year of formal education were grouped into five ranges as no formal education, primary, middle school, high school and more than high school. The analysis of data on educational profile of small tea growers of North-Bengal reveals that maximum respondents i.e 52% are educated upto high school level and 36% upto middle school level. Only 7% respondents had only upto primary level of education and 5% respondents were found having qualifications more than higher secondary level. The analysis therefore indicates that in respect of education also the small tea growers of North Bengal are dominated by moderately educated people and families. Almost similar result was found by Chapter-VI

89 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 69 Baruah (2003) in Assam. Although Majumdar (2008) showed that the small tea growers were mostly from low to medium level of educational groups. Although the respondents are not much educated, but if any member from a family is educated the resultant action in decision making will be more or less similar as an educated respondent. It is evident from table-6.2 that 79% of the family members are educated upto high school level and 11% upto middle school level. 10% of the family members are observed to be educated upto graduate level. In this way of system transformation, it is found that the people who lead the transformation are educationally ahead of other people of the society. The same picture is found in case of small tea growing system. Hindu Muslim Gen. OBC SC ST 2% 15% 34% 20% 85% 44% A B APL BPL Farming Business Service Others 4%1% 30% 13% 70% 82% C D Fig. 6.1 Distribution of STGs according to Religion (A), Caste (B), Economic Class (C) and Occupation including tea (D) Chapter-VI

90 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 70 Table 6.2: Distribution of small tea-growers of North Bengal according to respondent s education and highest family education Range Respondent s Education Highest Family Education Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage No formal education Primary (upto Class- 4) Middle School (Class-5-8) High School (Class-9-12) Greater than HS (>Class-12) Table 6.3: Distribution of small tea-growers of North Bengal according to occupational No. of occupation diversity and economic status of the family Occupational Diversity Frequency Percentage Score Range Economic Status Frequency Percentage Upto to & above > Occupational diversity means the number of secondary occupation option/options found in the family other than tea. Occupational diversity is directly correlated with the livelihood security and also changes the economic status. Number of occupation present in a family was taken as occupational diversity in the family. Table 6.3 represents the distribution of small tea-growers of North Bengal according to occupational diversity and economic status of the family. Here, in the above table range 1, 2 or 3 indicates one and more than one occupations of the respondents. From table-6.3, it is observed that 54.5% small tea growing families having two types of occupations and 25.5% respondents engaged in only tea cultivation. Members of 20% families were engaged with three or more types of occupations. One possible reason for adopting more than one enterprise might be the diversification of risks and uncertainty associated with traditional crop cultivation and maintenance of steady flow of farm income throughout the year. Majumdar (2008) also Chapter-VI

91 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 71 observed that the small tea growers of North Bengal are engaged with different other types of occupations other than tea. Table-6.3 also depicted the distribution of respondents according to economic status. In case of economic status score achieved by a family from different economic aspects were taken into account and classified into small, medium and high economic status of the family with the associated score range of upto 12, 13 to 18 and more than 18 respectively. The economic status was assessed from quality of house, sanitation and drinking water facilities and possession of productive assets. The above table shows the distribution of respondents according to their economic status. 51.5% of the respondents have medium level of economic status, 42% have high and only 6.5% respondents have low level of economic status. We can say overall economic statuses of the respondents are medium to high. Table 6.4: Distribution of small tea-growers of North Bengal according to media contact, outside contact and organisational participation Extension Media contact Outside Contact Organisational Participation Score Range Freq Per tage Score Range Freq Per tage No. of Institutions Freq Per tage Up to Up to No (0) to Only > > > Table-6.4 depicted distribution of small tea-growers of North Bengal according to media contact, outside contact and organisational participation. Extension media contact indicates contacts with different extension media such as contacts with agricultural development personnel or tea specialists or attending extension training or exhibition or close contact with daily news paper or watching television or listening radio etc. and measured against scores assigned to these media in different extent. From the table it is found that 30% of small tea growers of North-Bengal have low extension media contact followed by 67% have medium and rest 3% have high level extension media contact. Outside contact is the contact and mobility to other places. It is also called cosmopoliteness. According to the character of outside contact it is found from the table Chapter-VI

92 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 72 that 62% of the respondents had reported moderate level of cosmopoliteness status followed by low contact of 37 percent of small tea growers. Only one percent people had high levels of outside contact. The table also distributed the small tea growers of North Bengal according to the organisational participation score. Formal involvement with any organization like Panchayet, SHG, NGO, Govt. Institution, Private Organization or Projects or Agency was taken into consideration to measure organisational participation. It is seen from the table that 41.5% of the growers had no attachment with any type of institution and percent had moderate level of contact that is only with one institution. Only 14 percent had high level contact with more than one institution. Table 6.5: Distribution of small tea-growers of North Bengal according to their self confidence, innovativeness and leadership Score Range Self Confidence Innovativeness Leadership Frequ -ency Percen -tage Range Score Range Freq Frequency Percentage Percentage Up to Upto Up to > > > Table 6.5 depicted the distribution of small tea growers of North Bengal according to their self confidence, innovativeness and leadership. These three are the psychological characters of a respondent and it cannot be measured by any direct value. Different scales were used (vide chapter -V) to measure these characters and divided the respondents into different score ranges. From the above table it is found that 69% of the respondents possess medium level of self confidence followed by 26.5 % possess high and only 4.5% respondents had low level of self confidence. Innovativeness is the criteria of adopting any new technology package of practice or concept. 62% of small tea growers of North-Bengal had been found with low level of innovativeness, followed by 33.5% with medium level and only 4.5% with high level of innovativeness. So far the leadership is concerned; small tea growers were dominated by the moderate level of leadership (75.5 %) followed by high level of leadership (19.5 %). Chapter-VI

93 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 73 Self confidence, innovativeness and leadership are the personal characteristics which determine the extent of adoption of a technology or production system. Except innovativeness the small tea growers possess moderate to high level of these characters. However they maintained a lower moderate level of innovativeness. Although, innovativeness is one of the most important factors which defines adoption of a new system, but in case of adoption of small tea growing system, this phenomenon is not found. This may be the fact that small tea growing system has been accepted by the mass population irrespective of having any special characteristics Analysis of socio-personal characters based on mean values Table 6.6 represents the mean values of different socio-economic and personal characters of the small tea growers of North Bengal along with a comparative analysis of tea growers of different study districts and between the farmers affiliated with groups and non-member farmers. Mean analysis was taken to get a comparative picture between districts and between the farmers who are affiliated with groups or not. This section is also a confirmatory analysis of the previous section. From the table it is depicted that most of the STGs of North-Bengal area are from middle age group with a mean age value of yrs. The mean age of Uttar Dinajpur respondents is lower (43.92 yrs) compared to Jalpaiguri district (46.39 yrs) which are also statistically differs from each other. Although Mean age of SHG affiliated farmers (45.56 yrs) is little bit higher than Non-SHG respondents (44.75 yrs) but they are statistically at par. The mean education score of the small tea growers of North Bengal is upto class nine (mean value 9.32) which is considered as moderate level in educational status. Although educational status of both the district are at par but the groupaffiliated farmers had significantly higher level of education than non-member farmers. (mean = in SHG farmers against 8.44 of Non-SHGs) This may be due to the fact that educated respondents are much interested to join in SHG. The mean number of family members of small tea growers families of North-Bengal (4.58) is found to be same as found in case of both the districts. Although in average size of the family of SHG and non- SHG (with 4.50 and 4.66 numbers of members per family respectively) differs slightly but they are statistically at par with each other. In case of highest family education it is found that the mean family education status is whereas in Jalpaiguri district highest family education status (11.35) was observed higher than Uttar-Dinajpur district (10.74). The SHG Chapter-VI

94 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 74 respondents belong to higher family education status (11.78) than Non-SHG respondents (10.31). From the table it is also found that the mean number of occupation found in the small tea growers in North-Bengal is 1.98 which is quite low than Jalpaiguri district (2.25) and much higher than Uttar-Dinajpur district (1.70) which also differ significantly. It revealed that the respondents of Jalpaiguri district are found to be more involved in other enterprises besides tea than Uttar-Dinajpur district. However, there is no difference between SHG and Non-SHG STGs in respect of occupational diversity in the family. In case of organizational participation, respondents of Jalpaiguri district are found to be more attached with different type of organization such as Panchayet, NGO, Govt. or private organizations, Farmers club etc compared to Uttar-Dinajpur district. On the other hand, organizational participation status of SHG is quite high (1.29) than Non-SHG respondents (0.23) which is quite natural phenomenon. It is revealed from the table that mean outside contact score is observed as 3.8 which is little higher than the score of Jalpaiguri district (3.58) and much lower than Uttar-Dinajpur district (4.02). We can say that the respondents of Uttar-Dinajpur district is more cosmopolite than Jalpaiguri district. The SHG respondents of North-Bengal are more cosmopolite (4.00) than Non-SHG group (3.60). Organizational participation and outside contact score (cosmopoliteness) was found to be higher in case of SHG because SHG respondents are more exposed to different types of training, demonstration programmes and workshop organised by State Govt. Agricultural Departments or Tea-Board or by different NGOs or KVKs. Sometimes it was observed that SHG respondents were sent to attend outer state training by Tea-Board. Similarly extension media contact is observed higher in Jalpaiguri district (8.03) than Uttar-Dinajpur district (7.42). Like outside contact score, extension media score is observed to be higher in Jalpaiguri district in comparison to Uttar-Dinajpur district. Organizational participation and outside contact score(cosmopoliteness) and extension media contact score are found to be high in case of SHG because SHG respondents are more exposed to different types of training, demonstration programmes and workshop organised by State Govt. Agricultural Departments or Tea-Board or by different NGOs or KVKs. According to Mansingh and Johnson (2012) UPASI-KVK supported SHG as part of implementing the Quality Up gradation Programme (QUP).Group of STGs were formed Chapter-VI

95 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 75 and technical training was given to them by KVK. Focus was on improvement in field and changing the growers plucking practices. The economic status of the respondents revealed from the table shows that the mean economic status score was measured as which was slightly higher than the mean score of Jalpaiguri district (17.22). The mean economic status score of Uttar-Dinajpur district is observed to be high in compared to Jalpaiguri district. It means that the STGs of Uttar-Dinajpur district are economically more stable condition than the Jalpaiguri STGs. On the other hand, SHG respondents are in economically sound than Non-SHGs. It may be due to more tea production criteria for adopting better and scientific package and practices by the SHGs. Chapter-VI

96 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 76 Table-6.6 Analysis of socio-economic and personal characters of small tea growers of North Bengal based on mean values North Bengal District wise Group-affiliation Characters CV Mean Mean Min. Max. Mean t-value t-value (%) Jalpaiguri UD SHG Non-SHG Age ** Respondent s education *** No. of family member Highest family education * *** No. of occupation found in the family *** Organisational participation score ** *** Outside contact score *** *** Extension media contact score *** Economic status ** Self confidence score * *** Innovativeness score Leadership score *** *p<0.05 **p<0.01 ***p<0.001 Chapter-VI

97 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 77 The mean self confidence, innovativeness and leadership score as observed in North- Bengal area were 22.94, and 5.85 respectively. The above table shows that mean score of these parameter of the respondents of Jalpaiguri district is higher than the mean score of the respondents of Uttar-Dinajpur district. We can say that the respondents of Jalpaiguri district are more confident, more innovative and having more leadership capability than the respondents of Uttar-Dinajpur district. Besides it, from the table it is also observed that the mean self confidence score, innovativeness score and leadership score is observed to be in higher side in comparison with Non-SHGs. It means that the SHGs are more self-confident, more innovative and having more leadership capability than Non-SHGs of North-Bengal. From the findings it can be concluded that hypothesis-1 which states that small tea growers are dominated by younger generation and educated farmers are not accepted as the mean age of the small tea growers of North Bengal is more than 40 yrs; and the mean education level is also lower than secondary level. These findings are at par with the findings of Baruah (2003) and Majumder (2008). Regarding hypothesis-2 which sets statement that small tea growers are low achievers in respect of socio-personal characters can be discussed from different characters and can be individually rejected or accepted. In case of economic status, self confidence, innovativeness and leadership capability the hypothesis can be rejected because the are high achiever in these characters; In case of occupation diversity, outside contact and extension media contact, hypothesis may be partially accepted because they are moderate achievers of these characters; and in case of organisational participation, the hypothesis is accepted because they are low achiever in this character. Regarding hypothesis-6 (there is no difference between the STGs of different districts and between SHG and Non-SHG in respect of Socio-personal characters); when compared between two districts; regarding age, highest family education, occupation diversity, organisational participation, outside contact, extension media contact and self confidence the hypothesis is rejected. In all other cases, the hypothesis is accepted. However, when compared between the members and non-members, regarding age, family size, occupation diversity and innovativeness, the hypothesis is accepted; and all other cases it is rejected. Chapter-VI

98 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N Agro-economic perspectives of Small Tea Growers The present section represents the agro-economic characteristics of the small tea growers of North Bengal. Table 6.7 depicted information on different agro-economic aspects. Agro-economic characteristics of the cultivators are also the important determinants of the performance of small tea sector. Under agro-economic characteristics, land holding status of STGs, types of crops other than tea and their profitability were studied Distribution of respondents according to agro-economic characteristics Table 6.7 represented the distribution of STGs according to their land holding and irrigated land holdings. It is observed from the table that 58% of the respondents are possessing up to 2.5 ac of land, 30% of respondents up to 5 ac of land and 9% are having land size up to 10 ac. Only 3% respondents are having high land area i.e up to 25 ac. There is no respondent who had large land holding Viz. more than 25 acres of land. The study therefore reveals that STGs of North Bengal are dominated by marginal and small land holders. The irrigation status as found from the study area reveals that 58.5% of respondents were having irrigated land up to 2.5 ac; 29.5% had up to 5 ac of irrigated land holding whereas only 9.5% and 2.5% of STGs had up to 10 ac and 25 ac of irrigated land holding respectively. Hypothesis-3 which states that small tea growers are dominated by marginal and small land holders are accepted here. Table 6.8 shows the distribution of STG families according to their crop cultivation habits. As indicated by the table that maximum respondents, i.e 64% are cultivating only tea without any other crop. 31% respondents are engaged in another one type of crop other than tea (i.e. rice); and a meagre 5% were engaged in cultivation of 2 or more crops other than tea. The crops cultivated in the area other than tea were Paddy, Jute, Maize, Summer and Winter Vegetables, Potato, Brinjal, arecanut, Betel Vine etc. The table reveals that maximum small tea growers are totally dependent on tea cultivation. Chapter-VI

99 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 79 Table-6.7 Distribution of small tea growers (STGs) of North Bengal according to total and irrigated land holding Land holding size Marginal (up to 2.5 ac) Small (>2.5 to 5 ac) Semi-Medium (>5 to 10 ac) Medium (>10 to 25ac) Large (>25 ac) Total cultivated land Irrigated land Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Table-6.8 Crop cultivated by STGs other than tea Crops cultivated Area allotted No. of Crops Frequency Percent Area Frequency Percent Upto 1 ac >1 to 4 ac or more >4 to 10 ac Crops: Paddy, Jute, Maize, Summer and Winter Vegetables, Potato, Brinjal, Betel Vine Table 6.8 also shows that although the farmers had up to 25 acres of land but they had allotted only up to 4 acres of it for other crops than tea. 23.5% and 12.5% of respondents were allotted area up to 1 ac and 4 ac respectively. This table also supported that maximum small sector tea cultivars are cultivating tea as sole crop. Chapter-VI

100 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 80 Percentage of STGs Only Marketing 21.5 Surplus marketing 12 Home consumption Percentage of STGs Not profitable 20.5 Somewhat profitable 1 Highly Profitable A B Fig.-6.2 Purpose (A) and profitability (B) of cultivation of other crops Fig. 6.2 depicts purpose and profitability of other crops than tea. The profitability of the crop cultivation was measured against a 3- point perception scale as not profitable, somewhat profitable, and highly profitable with 0, 1 and 2 scores respectively. However, although 36 % STGs practice cultivation of other crops also; but Fig.-6.2 depicts that the purpose of cultivation was surplus marketing for most of the farmers and only 1% of STGs admitted that the cultivation of other crops were highly profitable. From the picture, we can predict that one of the important causes for resorting tea may be that the farmers consider the cultivation of other crops as less profitable Comparative analysis of agro-economic characteristics based on mean value Table-6.9 presented the comparative picture of different agro-economic characters of STG families. From the comparative analysis of mean values of agro-economic characteristics like total land holding, irrigated land holding etc. it is found that in Uttar Dinajpur district STGs possess significantly higher lands (3.87 ac per family) in comparison to Jalpaiguri STG families (2.68 ac per family), which is also more than the average land holding of STGs of North Bengal. But in possession of irrigated land holding the picture is just opposite viz. Jalpaiguri STG farmers had significantly more acreage of irrigated land holding than Uttar-Dinajpur. Members of SHGs were having significantly higher land than the non-member families, which is also true in case of possession of irrigated holding. Share of family income got from crops other than tea ranges from 0 to 65% and on an average only Chapter-VI

101 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N % in whole North-Bengal. Although Jalpaiguri STG families differ significantly from the STG family of Uttar-Dinajpur. The profitability of the crop cultivation was measured against a 3-point perception scale as not profitable, somewhat profitable, highly profitable with 0, 1 & 2 scores respectively. And in case of average income share by other crops, average number of agronomic crops other than tea, average allotment of acreage under other crops; group affiliation have no effect, but the two districts significantly differed in these cases except number of crops and profitability. Table-6.9 Comparative analysis based on mean values Parameters Total Land (ac) Irrigated Land holding (ac) Income share from other crops Crops other than tea Crop area (ac) Minimum Maximum Mean CV(%) District-wise analysis Jalpaiguri UD t-value 2.57** 2.98*** 2.87*** ** Group-wise analysis SHG Non-SHG t-value 4.23*** 3.53*** *p<0.05; **p<0.01 ***p<0.001 Chapter-VI

102 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N Scenario of resorting tea cultivation The present section represents the scenario of tea resort by the farmers of North Bengal. It includes analysis on the year wise number of farmers resorted tea cultivation, the influence of agents responsible for attracting farmers for tea cultivation, causes of tea resort in general as well as with the different land holding classes with a comparative discussion between districts and groups Year wise resort for tea cultivation Table-6.10 along with respective trend line (Fig. 6.3) reveals that the respondents of target area had been resorted to small tea cultivation from 2000 to 2013.The maximum resorting to small tea growing system observed from 2005 to % of the resorting is observed during this time. The resorting was observed to be decreasing from 2010 to Table-6.10 Yearwise No. of farmers resorted tea Year No. of farmers Cumulative number Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Chapter-VI

103 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N No. of STGs Year of adoption Fig. 6.3 Trend of resorting tea This system conversion from traditional crop cultivation or pineapple to tea was occurred by a two pronged force acted upon the rural mass of farmers. In the late 90s or early years of this century, the big gardens faced different problems and became sick or closed. The processing units of those gardens were at that time was hungry to get green leaves from the surroundings and created an opportunity to the farmers. The farmers who were already dissatisfied with the performance of their crop cultivation or some other cash crops like pineapple in the market readily grabbed the opportunity created in the vicinity. So, in the early years a steady growth of small tea growers in North Bengal was found. Hypothesis-5 (there is an increasing trend of conversion into tea) may be accepted for the first few years of adoption of tea cultivation Agents influenced resort for tea cultivation Table 6.11 indicates the relative role of different agents for influencing tea cultivation. Different agents were found in the area of study who influenced the farmers to come into tea cultivation directly or indirectly. Different agents were neighbours, relatives, friends, leaf agents, KPS, Tea-Board through their personnel, factory personnel, and others. The relative role was assessed through single simple percentage of farmers influenced by the agents which is mentioned in the parenthesis under each frequency in the table. From table- Chapter-VI

104 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N it is clear that neighbours were the main agents for influencing tea cultivation. Overall 67% respondents were influenced by neighbours. Respondents of Uttar-Dinajpur district and Non-SHGs were more influenced by neighbours than Jalpaiguri district and SHG members Relative Role of different Agents for influencing resort to tea cultivation Agents of change Number of farmers influenced with percentage value Total Jal UD SHG Neighbour (66.5) (60.0) (75.0) (60.0) Relatives (17.0) (20.0) (13.0) (21.0) Friends (3.0) (5.0) (0.0) (5.0) Leaf agent (6.5) (8.0) (5.0) (4.0) KPS (3.5) (4.0) (3.0) (5.0) Tea board (1.0) (1.0) (0.0) (1.0) Factory personnel (1.0) (1.0) (0.0) (1.0) Others (2.0) (1.0) (3.0) (3.0) Rank order Correlation Between districts Rho=0.82 (p<0.01) Between SHG and non-shg Rho=0.76 (p<0.03) NB: figures in the parentheses indicate percentage Non- SHG 75 (75.0) 12 (12.0) 0 (0.0) 10 (10.0) 2 (2.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 2 (2.0) The second important agents were the relatives. Leaf agent was also another influencing agent in this area to be observed. The respondents of Jalpaiguri district were more influenced by leaf agents than the respondents of Uttar-Dinajpur district. Moreover the Non- SHGs were also more influenced than SHGs in both of the districts. The reason behind this factor may be that the Non-SHG members are more dependent on leaf agents for selling their leaves. Mansingh and Johnson (2012) showed that the agents collect the green leaf from STGs and transport to the processing factory. There are several factors that make agents a powerful player in this value chain. According to them, the agent gives an impression that he is absorbing the risks. By seeing their initiative for selling of green leaves, more number of respondents was being influenced to resort to small tea cultivation from their traditional practices. The other influencing agents were friends, KPS, Tea-Board and Factory personnel, but very less number of respondents is influenced by them. Rank order correlation value(p) in Chapter-VI

105 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 85 both between districts and between SHG and Non-SHG is significant which means both the districts and SHG and Non-SHGs are at par in being influenced by the different agents Causes of resorting tea It is imperative to analyse why the farmers were resorting tea cultivation replacing traditional crop cultivation. Table-6.12 depicts these causes. The causes for resorting tea was collected from previous studies and also from the discussion with the farmers (vide chapter v). A five point scale (-2 to +2 representing strongly disagree to strongly agree) were used to assess the strength of causes. From the scale, it is evident that the causes which scored positively are considered as the important causes of resorting tea, but which scored negative may not be considered as the causes of resorting tea. It reveals from the table that the main reasons for resorting to small scale tea cultivation in North-Bengal area was that the tea cultivation gives pre-planned expenditure support to the family (mean score 1.87). Every family has a pre-planned budget for living throughout the year. Farmers are dependent on the produce from the farm to meet this budget. Any sudden failure may hamper the living of the family. Tea can withstand this failure and so more preferred by the farmers in the study area. It also gives extra economic support to the farm families. The second main reason for resorting to small scale tea cultivation was that the tea was the best substitute of existing niggling farm based enterprise (mean score 1.83). Niggling farm based enterprise was the pine apple cultivation. This finding is also supported by Majumdar (2008), Tea Board (2011) and Hannan (2013). Majumdar (2008) found that absence of well organized market, non remunerative prices for the produce, lack of preservation facility and absence of good processing industries so on and so forth, the farmers in the pineapple sector have shifted to tea cultivation. Hannan (2013) has given a real picture of resorting tea from pineapple cultivation in Uttar-Dinajpur district. According to him, early 1990s this area was dominated by pineapple cultivation. Due to the absence of proper marketing and processing strategies, the pineapple growers had to face a lot of difficulties for selling the product. The resultant outcome was that the vast tract of pineapple growing area had been converted to a new and commercially viable crop like tea. They had already an orientation for cultivation of commercial cash crop and jumped to tea to escape from day-today hazards associated with pineapple. Chapter-VI

106 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 86 Some respondents started tea observing the success of other farmers and this is the third reason for resorting to tea (mean score 1.66). Success of the peer farmers is one of the strongest factors in motivation for new technology. Farmer exchange programme is one of such extension activity. Farmers can learn more from peers than any other agent of change. Table-6.11 also supports this finding that the strongest agent for influencing tea resort was the neighbours and relatives. The next reason for resorting was that the net profit was low in other crops in comparison to tea with mean score It is supported by Baruah (2003). In his study on small tea cultivation in Assam he observed that the high profitability and prospects of getting a steady income with minimum efforts contributed to the growth of small tea growers. Competitive market is not available in other crops in comparison to tea, for which some of the respondents resorted to tea. This reason is considered the fifth reason for resorting to tea with mean score value of This reason for resorting tea is supported by Majumdar (2008). The study of Majumdar has found that agricultural land in Jalpaiguri and Uttar-Dinajpur district i.e in Chopra and Johuri-Talma are essentially mono cropping land without irrigation facilities. The traditional agricultural operations seem to be economically non-viable in these regions due to these factors. On the other hand, in terms of net benefit, the rate of tea is attractive than the rate of traditional crop. This possibly is one of the facts as that justifies the conversion of higher proportion of crop land to tea plantation from an economic point of view. Next reason for resorting is to come up from climatic and uncertainty associated with cultivation of other crops (mean score 0.49). Tea because of a perennial crop, hardy in nature can not fail after establishment and also resistant to uncertain climatic hazards. So, it became an important consideration for resorting tea. Paid out cost means the costs of cultivation which have to be paid in cash i.e. cost related to labour and inputs like plant protection chemicals. Although in tea labour requirement is very high, but we can see that the ratio of labour requirement in plucking and other operations is so high in tea. Plucking means instant income which is performed throughout the year. But in no other crop except some very few plantation crops this is seen. In the study area, one plucking day means 25 kg of green leaves and a labour charge of Rs. Chapter-VI

107 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N (in 2014 rate) only. In the lowest priced months (Nov-Dec.) also it will return at least Rs (in 2014 Rs per kg of green leaves; which gives a money back of at least Rs So, this also became a very strong cause for resorting tea (mean score 0.27). These above mentioned reasons are considered the main reasons for resorting to small tea sector. Uncertainty associated with traditional crop cultivation, assurance of economic security, a steady flow of farm income, a fairly low risks of disease and a relatively little amount of investment which have motivated this segment of the peasantry class to switch over to tea. Some reasons like governmental support in STG system, encouragement from tea board and other agencies, unavailability of quality planting materials, insufficient infrastructural facilities like transport or storage facilities, subsidy from Tea-Board or SHG were although considered important by some of the people, but in totality these were not considered as important (Mean values are negative) for resorting tea. Fig. 6.4 depicts the comparative strength of the reasons for resorting tea in different districts and among the SHG and Non-SHG farmers. From Fig. 6.4 we can conclude that more or less same picture was found in both the cases. In case of district comparison, Uttar- Dinajpur STGs had stronger perception of causes to resort to tea; and SHG member felt the causes stronger than the Non-SHGs. In case of R10 (To come out from climatic and other uncertainty associated with cultivation of traditional crops) a diverse opinion was found. Uttar-Dinajpur STGs and STGs not associated with SHG did not consider it as a cause for resorting. Uttar-Dinajpur having more irrigation facilities may not consider it as a cause of resort. However, on an overall scenario district and group affiliation has no effect on strength of perception of causes of resorting tea [Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test: W=30 (p>0.48) between districts and W=25 (p>0.27) between SHG and Non-SHG both of which are not significant] Hypothesis-4 which states that there are economic and other reasons which attracted farmers of North Bengal in tea cultivation can be accepted. Among the twelve causes considered for the study seven were the important causes for resorting tea. Economic causes were emerged as the most important causes for resorting tea as a whole in North Bengal. Chapter-VI

108 Table-6.12 Causes of resorting small tea cultivation Causes Ratio of periodic money back and paid out cost is comparatively high in tea (R1) Relative net profit is low in other crops in comparison to tea (R2) Competitive market is not available in other crop in comparison to tea (R3) Quality planting material (seed) is not available in comparison to tea (R4) Infrastructural facilities like transport, storage etc. is not sufficient in comparison to tea.(r 5) Governmental/organisational support is more for tea than other crops (R6) Subsidy/ good benefit from Tea-Board and SHG (R7) Started tea cultivation observing the success of other farmers (R8) Encouragement from Tea board/other agency (R9) To come up from climatic and uncertainity associated with cultivation of other crops (R10) It gives pre-planned expenditure opportunity to the family (R11) It was the best subsitute of existing niggling farm based enterprise. (R12) Strongly disagree 21 (11.50) 4 (2.00) 6 (3.00) 43 (21.50) 29 (14.50) 34 (17.00) 54 (27.00) 0 (0.00) 34 (17.00) 24 (12.00) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N (21.50 ) 4 (2.00) 11 (5.50) 58 (29.00 ) 92 (46.00 ) 59 (29.50 ) 66 (33.00 ) 0 (0.00) 54 (27.00 ) 23 (11.50 ) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) Disagree Undecide d 31 (15.50) 3 (1.50) 11 (5.50) 57 (28.50) 37 (18.50) 70 (35.00) 79 (39.50) 1 (0.50) 87 (43.50) 50 (25.00) 0 (0.00) 5 (2.50) Agree 70 (35.00 ) 80 (40.00 ) 63 (31.50 ) 36 (18.00 ) 33 (16.50 ) 30 (15.00 ) 1 (0.50) 66 (33.00 ) 16 (8.00) 37 (18.50 ) 27 (13.50 ) 24 (12.00 ) Strongl y Agree 34 (17.00) 109 (54.50) 109 (54.50) 6 (3.00) 9 (4.50) 7 (3.50) 0 (0.00) 133 (61.50) 9 (4.50) 66 (33.00) 173 (86.50) 171 (85.50) Mea n Score Rank 0.27 V1I 1.43 IV 1.29 V X XI VIII XII 1.66 III IX 0.49 VI 1.87 I 1.83 II Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test: W=30 (p>0.48) between districts and 25 (p>0.270) between SHG and non-shg NB: figures in the parentheses indicate percentage Chapter-VI

109 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N Strength of causes [Max=2; Min=(-) R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 Jal UD A:Compaison between districts Strength of causes [Max=2; Min=(-)2] R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 SHG Non-SHG B:Comparison between SHG & Non-SHGs Fig. 6.4 Comparative picture between Districts and Groups R1=Ratio of periodic money back and paid out cost is comparatively high in tea R2=Relative net profit is low in other crops in comparison to tea R3=Competitive market is not available in other crop in comparison to tea R4=Quality planting material (seed) is not available in comparison to tea R5=Infrastructural facilities like transport, storage etc. is not sufficient in comparison to tea. R6=Governmental/organisational support is more for tea than other crops. Key of Causes R7=Subsidy/ good benefit from Tea-Board and SHG R8=Started tea cultivation observing the success of other farmers R9=Encouragement from Tea board/other agency R10=To come up from climatic and uncertainty associated with cultivation of other crops R11=It gives pre-planned expenditure opportunity to the family R12=It was the best subsitute of existing niggling farm based enterprise. Chapter-VI

110 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 90 From the figure 6.4 it is clear that there is some differences between STGs of different districts and between SHGs and Non-SHGs in perception of causes of resorting tea and hence the Hypothesis number 8 is not accepted Influence of socio-economic and personal characters on earliness of resorting tea Table-6.13 presented the simple correlation coefficient between socio-economic and personal characters of STGs and earliness of resorting tea. Table-6.13 Impact of socio-economic and personal characters on earliness of resorting tea Socio-economic and personal characters of STGs Simple correlation coefficient (r-value) Respondent s chronological age Respondent s education Respondent s family Size Respondent s highest family education status ** Occupational diversity in respondent s family ** Respondent s family economic status Respondent s organisational participation score Respondent s outside contact behaviour ** Respondent s media communication score ** Respondent s self confidence Respondent s innovativeness Respondent s leadership capability **p<0.01 It is found from the table that respondent s highest family education status, respondents outside contact behaviour and respondent s media communication score had significant positive correlation with the earliness of resorting tea cultivation; whereas occupational diversity in respondent s family had a significant negative correlation. The Chapter-VI

111 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 91 result implies that the respondents who were highly in contact with outer world, who had a higher communication with different inter-personal and mass media had resorted tea earlier; but the farming family who had higher occupational diversity had resorted tea later. Adoption of any new technology or system depends on the feeling of marginality in the human mind. Occupational diversity decreases this feeling and consequently decreases the tendency of resort to new system of cultivation. Whereas higher education, media contact or cosmopoliteness increases understanding and exposure to new and advantageous systems of cultivation and increases the affinity to such system for further improvement. However, other characters had no significant influence on earliness to shifting/resorting to tea cultivation in the present set of study. The Hypothesis-10 which states that there is no effect of socio-personal characters on earliness in resorting tea is not accepted. Educated youths were attracted first to tea cultivation. Educated youth has apathy to the traditional crop husbandry due to peasants base and non-remunerative output. Tea cultivation has the fancy to become entrepreneurship and fulfils the gratification of rural youth to be regarded as the uplifted class. Historically, tea is associated with prestige and dignities in the society. Being estate orientation, people from peasantry background felt an awe to be associated with it. Small tea growing system had broken this feeling and grabbed the rural educated youth into it at least in the very early days of adoption Change in the family after resorting tea Table-6.14 shows the contribution of tea cultivation on total family income. Table-6.14 Contribution of Tea in family income Contribution Frequency Percentage 100% <100% to 80% <80% to 50% <50% It is clear that in case of 46.50% respondents (50-80)% income is from tea cultivation followed by 19.50% respondents whose (80-100)% incomes is from the tea Chapter-VI

112 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 92 sector. 25% respondents are getting 100% income from his tea cultivation. Only 9% respondents are found whose less than 50% income comes from tea sector. Table-6.15 represented the change in family conditions from food security to overall happiness as perceived by the STGs. The changes were perceived in a three point scale from deteriorated to improved with (-1) to (+1). From table, different changes in the household level after resorting small tea growing system are known. It is clear that in case of 97% respondents, overall happiness in the family has been improved. Besides it, 96% respondents improved their savings in bank and 93% respondents are observed to improve their food security at home. 83% and 69% respondents of the target area have improved their housing condition and loan availability. After resorting small tea growing system, the using of modern farm machineries and farm implements has been improved. Respondents are spending money for tours and travels and they are starting to use modern household appliances after resorting to small tea growing system. But their health security, sanitation condition, drinking water facilities and school going of children condition not improved much. It is a matter of concern that woman drudgery as mentioned by 69.50% respondents remained same after adopting small tea growing system. Availability of loans, borrowing money and health security criteria has been observed to be deteriorated as perceived by only 3.50%, 4.50% and 1.50% respondents respectively. Although a little range of farmers perceived otherwise, the most of the STGs have perceived a positive change in their overall condition after resorting tea. This may be regarded as the impact of small tea growing system which is highly promising in the study area. In most of the house hold situation except loan availability, borrowing money and health security none had expressed that the condition is deteriorated. It may be due to the fact that tea cultivation requires more money, so borrowing for some of the people may be increased. For more demand of loan from many, scope for getting loan may be reduced for Chapter-VI

113 Table-6.15 Perceived change in household situation R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 93 Situation Deteriorated Remained same/no comments Improved Mean Score Rank Condition of food security at home (C1) 0 (0.00) 14 (7.00) 186 (93.00) 0.93 III Housing condition (C2) 0 (0.00) 34 (17.00) 166 (83.00) 0.83 IV Sanitation condition (C3) 0 (0.00) 110 (55.00) 90 (45.00) 0.45 XIII Drinking water facilities (C4) 0 (0.00) 124 (62.00) 76 (38.00) 0.38 XVI Using modern household appliances (C5) 0 (0.00) 96 (48.00) 104 (52.00) 0.52 XI Using luxury goods (C6) 0 (0.00) 120 (60.00) 80 (40.00) 0.40 XV Using modern farm equipments (C7) 0 (0.00) 79 (39.50) 121 (60.50) 0.61 VIII Using farm machineries (C8) 0 (0.00) 73 (36.50) 127 (63.50) 0.64 VII Availability of loans (C9) 7 (3.50) 49 (24.50) 144 (72.00) 0.69 VI Borrowing money (C10) 9 (4.50) 74 (37.00) 117 (58.50) 0.54 X Saving with banks (C11) 0 (0.00) 9 (4.50) 191 (95.50) 0.96 II Women drudgery (C12) 0 (0.00) 139 (69.50) 61 (30.50) 0.31 XVII Health security (C13) 3 (1.50) 103 (51.50) 94 (47.00) 0.46 XII School going of children (C14) 0 (0.00) 116 (83.00) 84 (42.00) 0.42 XIV Tours and travels (C15) 0 (0.00) 87 (43.50) 113 (56.50) 0.57 IX Festivals and ceremony (C16) 0 (0.00) 57 (28.00) 143 (71.50) 0.72 V Overall happiness in the family (C17) 1 (0.50) 5 (2.50) 194 (97.00) 0.97 I NB: Figures in the parentheses indicate percentage Chapter-VI

114 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 94 some of the farmers and some of the farmers may face deteriorated heath condition due to higher and over engagement in tea cultivation. Figure-6.5 depicted the comparative picture of perception of the respondents regarding the change in the household conditions in household level by the tea growers of two districts and between the members and non-members of the Self-Help Groups. It is found from the levels of different bars that the perception regarding change was more or less same. Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test (U= and between districts and Groups respectively which is not significant) indicates whole North Bengal (both the districts and irrespective of whether they are members of groups or not) is at par in respect of perception regarding the change in family aspects after resorting tea Perception regarding change in the locality after resorting tea Resorting to small tea growing system may be regarded as a system transformation from traditional crop cultivation model to a cash crop oriented cultivation system. In any system transformation, parallel to the individual household level, the locality level also experience change in different aspects. Empowerment in individual level enhances development in different societal and collective fronts. The present study tried to capture the perceived changes in general living condition of the locality which includes locality sanitation and accessibility of health and other daily household necessity. Social capital is one of the most important capitals in the capital pentagon of the livelihood analysis model. It is the inner flow of the relationship network among the members of the community. Measurement of social capital was done with the indirect variables like the quality of interaction between the members and the existence of the grass root organisation in the locality. Leadership and collective say was another aspect which was also taken into account. Changes in housing, market, road, school etc were collectively considered as infrastructure facility. The most important change considered in locality level was the outmigration of labour force. Seasonal and permanent out-migration is one of the characters of the marginal societies and rural North-Bengal is not also the excepting of this character. Chapter-VI

115 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 95 Extent of change (Max score=1) C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 Jal UD A. Comparison between districts (Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test value U=140.00NS) Extent of change (Max score=1) C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 SHG Non-SHG B. Comparison between SHG and Non-SHG (Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test value U=99.50NS) C1=Condition of food security at home C2=Housing condition C3=Sanitation condition C4=Drinking water facilities C5=Using modern household appliances C6=Using luxury goods C7=Using modern farm equipments C8=Using farm machineries C9=Availability of loans Key for Codes used in the figure C10=Borrowing money C11=Saving with banks C12=Women drudgery C13=Health security C14=School going of children C15=Tours and travels C16=Festivals and ceremony C17=Overall happiness in the family Fig. 6.5 Comparative pictures of perception regarding change in family condition after resorting tea cultivation between districts and the SHG and Non-SHG members Chapter-VI

116 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 96 The table-6.16 reveals changes in the locality environment after adopting small tea cultivation. The change was perceived under the domain of General living condition, social capital formation, leadership & collective say, infrastructure and labour out migration. They were exposed against the scale consisting the response points highly deteriorated (HD); moderately deteriorated (MD); deteriorated (D); no change (NC); improved (I); moderately improved (MI); and highly improved (HI) with (-3); (-2); (-1); 0; (+1); (+2) and (+3) respectively. Table represented frequencies of respondents under each response points along with the representative mean score to get a general and comparative picture on change in the locality. Table-6.16 Perception regarding improvement in the locality environment Conditions General living condition Social capital formation Leadership & collective say HD (-3) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) 16 (8.00) 0 Infrastructure (0.00) 0ut migration 0 (0.00) MD (-2) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) 4 (2.00) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) D (-1) 0 (0.00) 2 (1.00) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) NC (0) 0 (0.00) 2 (1.00) 10 (5.00) 31 (15.50) 0 (0.00) I (+1) 27 (13.50) 75 (37.50) 4 (2.00) 70 (35.00) 65 (32.50) MI (+2) 79 (39.50) 77 (36.00) 43 (21.50) 29 (14.50) 64 (32.00) HI (+3) 94 (47.00) 44 (22.00) 123 (61.50) 70 (35.00) 71 (35.50) Mean score* HD=highly deteriorated; MD=moderately deteriorated; D=deteriorated; NC=no change; I=improved; MI=moderately improved; HI=highly improved NB: figures in the parentheses indicate percentage Where, *Mean score was calculated with the following formula: =. fi=frequency of the ith change category (viz. frequency under HI, MI..etc.); wi=scale value of change category (viz. +3,+2..etc.); n=no. of change category considered (here 7); and N=no. of respondents Chapter-VI

117 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 97 From the table, it is observed that the general living condition is perceived as highly improved (HI) by 47% of the respondents, where as 39.5% and 13.5% of the respondents perceived that it was moderately improved (MI) and improved (I) respectively. In no cases any deterioration has been observed. Here social capital indicates various types of social activities related to relationship with neighbours, relatives, attending social programmes, rituals, festivals, helping attitude to neighbours etc. and building of grass root organisation like SHG or farmers club. In the sector of social capital formation, maximum respondents (36%) perceived that it was moderately improved (MI). 37.5% respondents perceived that it was only improved (I) and as high as 22% respondents had admitted that social capital formation was highly improved (HI) after resorting tea. A very few respondents also perceived that there was no change (NC) occurred or it was deteriorated (D) (1% cases each). Leadership and collective say means leadership behaviour, functioning at grass root organization or participation in various kinds of development works etc. 61.5% respondents perceived that leadership and collective say had been highly improved whereas 21.5% and 2 % respondents had said that it was moderately deteriorated and deteriorated. However, in case of leadership and collective say some of the respondents had also perceived that it was deteriorated in different extent (2% under moderate, and 8% under high extent). Infrastructure means power access in locality, sanitation and drinking water facilities, health facilities, roads and easily accessibility. In case of infrastructure issue, 35% respondents had been observed with highly improved (HI) perception category; whereas 14.5% and 35% of the respondents perceived that rural infrastructure had been moderately improved (MI) or improved (I). In this case, 15.5% respondents also perceived as no change (NC) in infrastructure. Out migration of labour is a welcome feature sometimes; if; by it rural economy changes positively. In the present high speed communication era, labour out migration is a common feature to access diverse occupational scopes in the outer areas (outer states also). But out migration have a negative impact when the whole able working force of a family goes out of the locality and the in-situ land based occupations drastically impacted Chapter-VI

118 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 98 Extent of change (Max Score=3) General living condition Social capital formation Leadership & collective say Infrastructure 0ut migration Jal Ud A: Comparison between districts Extent of change (Max Score=3) General living condition Social capital formation Leadership & collective say Infrastructure 0ut migration SHG NSHG B: Comparison between SHG and Non-SHG Fig. 6.6 Perception regarding change in locality negatively. For this out migration the family based traditional agricultural practices are being the responsibility of the older or the women members which most of the times gives less productivity from this. But introduction of small tea transformed the traditional farmers to farmer entrepreneur; and once job seeker now is being transformed to the job provider. In case of out migration, none has opined that the condition deteriorated after introduction of tea in small sector %, 32.00% and 32.50% of the respondents had Chapter-VI

119 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 99 opinion that condition out migration had improved highly, moderately or just improved. Their probability of out migration has been highly reduced after resorting to small tea. However mean scores indicates that in all the aspects the change was perceived as moderate to high. Fig.6.6 depicted a comparison of changes occurred in locality and community level between districts and SHGs and Non-SHGs areas. This figure indicates a clear picture about changes observed in two districts after resorting small scale tea growing system. Perceived changes regarding general living condition, leadership & collective say, infrastructure and out-migration are observed to be high in case of Uttar-Dinajpur district than Jalpaiguri district. But in social capital formation issue the growth of both districts are observed to be the same. In case of general living condition improvement, social capital formation, infrastructure development and out-migration issue, SHG respondents are observed to be in higher position than Non-SHG respondents but in case of leadership and collectively say issue, the SHG respondents are far ahead than Non-SHG members in case of both districts. According to Tea-Board (2011), the STG today feel that the only way to have collective voice and organized bargaining power is to form them into SHG. The SHGs are normally associated with various kinds of leadership activities, they are generally associated with different kinds of grass root organizations and engaged with different development works, and therefore their score is naturally quite high compared to Non- SHGs. Hence the Hypothesis- 11 which states that after resorting tea, the socio-economic situation and collective capability of the farmers improved has been accepted. Chapter-VI

120 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N Status of small tea growers in respect of production and marketing General perspectives of small tea cultivation in North Bengal The estate orientation of tea industry where tea is grown in a large contiguous areas are now also reoriented in small scale tea production units. As the farmers of North-Bengal resorted tea cultivation from traditional crop cultivation, tea plots are distributed in between traditional crop lands also. A common feature of land ownership scenario in West-Bengal is the ownership of fragmented land. The same picture is found in case of small tea growing system also. Small tea growing system of North-Bengal composed of small plots. From table-6.17 we can find that although the average area of tea cultivation in North Bengal is 2.99 acres ranging widely from only 0.42 ac of minimum area to as high as 22 ac of area (CV value % signifies a very scatter distribution) but these are distributed in 1 to 4 fragmentations with an average per capita fragmentation of 1.25 numbers. Age of the small garden as observed varied from 2 years to 14 years with a mean age of 7.08 years. Table-6.17 Agronomic perspectives of small tea growing system Variables No. of plots where tea is grown Total Area (ac) Age of the garden Picture of North Bengal Min Max Mean CV(%) Comparison between districts Jal UD t-value 0.89NS 2.18* 4.13*** Comparison between SHG and Non-SHG SHG Non-SHG t-value 4.40*** 3.70*** 2.02* CV=Coefficient of variation; Jal=Jalpaiguri; UD=Uttar Dinajpur NS=Non-significant *p<0.05 **p<0.01 ***p<0.001 Chapter-VI

121 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 101 The table also presented a differentiated picture of districts and group affiliation which depicted that the mean number of plots where tea is grown is observed in Jalpaiguri and Uttar-Dinajpur district were 1.21 and 1.28 respectively which are statistically at par in nature. But in case of SHGs and Non-SHGs, numbers of plots are 1.41 and 1.08 which are significantly different. The mean total area of tea cultivation of Uttar-Dinajpur district (3.50 acre) was quite high than in Jalpaiguri district (2.47 acre) and mean total area under tea of SHGs (3.84 acre) were observed higher than the Non-SHGs (2.13 acre) which are also significantly different from each other. From table 6.9 it is seen that the Uttar-Dinajpur farmers having significantly higher total land ownership (average 3.87 ac in UD against 2.68 ac in Jalpaiguri per capita) than Jalpaiguri farmers. And it is an astonishing fact that the small tea growers in both the districts had allotted more than 90 % of their total land holding under tea (90.43 % in UD and 92.16% in Jalpaiguri). If we assess it in respect of SHG farmers it goes up to 92.97%; and in respect of non-shg it goes up to 92.21% of their total ownership. In the study areas, it was found that the homestead lands were also allotted under tea in some of the cases. Average age of the small sector tea garden in Uttar-Dinajpur district (7.90 yrs) was quite higher than Jalpaiguri district (6.26 yrs) which are significantly different from each other. Average age of small garden of SHGs (7.49 yrs) is observed higher than average age of Non-SHG tea garden with average age of 6.67 yrs. This is due to the fact that in North Bengal, small sector tea cultivation was started from the Chopra area of Uttar Dinajpur. As the tea board serves only to the SHG affiliated farmers, the older gardens had been affiliated faster with SHG than the newer gardens. Fig-6.7 depicts the physical perspectives of small scale tea plots of North Bengal. Fig-6.1A supports the phenomena that the small tea growers are converting their traditional land to tea which shows that 54% of STGs plots had traditional crops in its adjacent plots. Texturally, 79% of the tea plots are sandy-loam, 20% are loamy and rest 1% are sandy in nature. The distribution of topography classes in this diagram shows that 61% area was observed as high land category whereas other 39% area was medium category. No area had been observed as low land in nature. The tea was first introduced in North Bengal in high, uncultivated areas and now spreading towards traditional crop lands distributed mostly in medium topography. However, due to being in high rainfall zone, low lands are not much Chapter-VI

122 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 102 suitable for tea cultivation in North Bengal. In low land higher rainfall may create water logging which is detrimental to tea cultivation. Tea Field crop Sandy Sandy-Loam Loam 1% 20% 46% 54% 79% A B High Medium Low 0% Sloppy Flat 39% 61% 52% 48% C Sprinkler Flood Both Own D Purchased 31% 42% 41% 59% 27% E F A:Crops in adjacent plot; B: Texture; C: Topography; D: Physiographic class; E: Method of irrigation followed; F: Ownership of irrigation Fig.-6.7: Physical perspective of the small tea plots of North Bengal Chapter-VI

123 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 103 A: Establishment of small growers tea plots B: Sprinkler Irrigation in small growers plot C: Small growers Tea plots in between field crops D: Small growers tea plot used as boundary hedge E: Small growers tea plots in areca nut plantation (homestead land) F: Pruning activity in small growers plot Plate-3 (A-E): Different activities Small Growers Plots Chapter-VI

124 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 104 Pie charts (6.7C to 6.7F) depict land physiography classification of STGs plots, method and sources of irrigation they access. It is revealed from these diagram that 52% plots were flat in nature where as remaining portion is sloppy. Although tea grows well in sloopy land but in Dooars, tea is also cultivated in flat lands. It is revealed also that 42% plots of the respondents were covered with sprinkler system, 27% practiced flood method of irrigation and remaining portion is managed by both, i.e sprinkler and flood irrigation of which 59% had their own source and 41% had to purchase from others General description of tea cultivation in small tea sector The present section depicts an overall picture regarding the cultivation status of tea in small sector. Although this information is not new for estate gardens, but lacking in small tea sector especially in case of North Bengal. The section tries to represent a comparative picture of SHG and Non-SHG and also among the districts. The deviation from estate gardens has also been discussed in this section. Table-6.18 represented about the general cultivation practices followed by the small tea growers of North Bengal. The respondents of Jalpaiguri district mainly used TV-25 and TV-26 clone types as variety separately or in combination. The plant to plant and row to row (PxP::RxR) spacing as observed varies from x At the time of establishment they prefer to use organic manures like FYM or neemcake. Some also use Rock phosphate and also Phorate 10G as protection chemicals. The respondents of both districts prefer shade tree in their garden. But some respondents are observed who have not planted shade trees in their garden (in very small plots). In both the district spacing was maintained for shade trees. In rare cases 20 x20 spacing was also observed. In Jalpaiguri district cultivated land of small tea sector is mainly high with sloppy in nature. Flat lands are also used; although in Uttar-Dinajpur district medium and highland are observed with flat topography. Mainly sprinkler irrigation system was observed in Jalpaiguri district and it is practiced by both SHGs and Non-SHGs. But Non-SHGs sometimes irrigate through flood irrigation. The SHGs mainly use their own source assisted from tea board and Non-SHGs generally use hired source to irrigate tea plants. Throughout the year they use 2-3 times fertilisation (mainly with urea, rock phosphate and muriate of Chapter-VI

125 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 105 potash) mostly in pre and post monsoon period and another, based on needs after heavy plucking, if practised. In both the districts digging and cleaning of drains done in January or February months and weeding is done ordinarily once in a year. In both districts looper, mite and tea mosquito bug problems were severe. Jalpaiguri district respondents generally use Acetamiprid, Emidachloropid, Azadirachtinfor mosquito bug; Flubenzamide, Chloropyriphos and Quinalphos for looper caterpillar and Glyphosate for controlling weeds. The Uttar-Dinajpur respondents, both SHGs and Non-SHGs use Emidachloprid, Thiamethoxam for tea mosquito bugs; Fipronil for thrips; Alfamethrin, Phosalone and Quinalphos for looper and Glyphosate as herbicide. They pluck more than twenty times although the quality of green leaf is not maintained. In Uttar-Dinajpur they even pluck the tender top portions (6 to 8 ) of the plant. In such cases, number of plucking reduced per year, although they can market higher amout of greens but in very low price. Both the districts prefer Agromin, Biomino, Planofix and Cytozyme as growth promoter or regulator of tea leaves. Table-6.18 General cultivation aspects followed by small tea growers of North Bengal Package Seed clone used Establishment Nutritional source Irrigation Weeding and intercultural operation Plant Protection chemicals and Growth regulators used Practices TV-25, TV-26 or mixed. Proper land preparation with FYM / Neemcake and / or Rock Phosphate with spacing (3-3.5 ) x (2-2.5 ). Preferred shade trees are Ghoraneem (Melia azedarach), Sirish (Albizia labbeck), Kadam (Neolamarckia cadamba) and sometimes Tezpata (Cinnamomum tamala) with a spacing of x Arecanut (Areca catechu) is an important plant which is abundantly found inside the small tea plantation in North Bengal. Mainly Urea as N-source, Rock phosphate as P-source and MOP as K-source. Applied twice/year before and after monsoon. Sometimes, another dose is applied when heavy plucking is practiced. Sprinkler and flood both were practised times per year. Both hand and chemical weeding are practised. Glyphosate was used as chemical herbicide. 1-3 times of weeding practised. Intercultural operation done mainly in January. Tea mosquito bug, Looper caterpillar and Thrips were mainly reported. No important disease was reported. Acetamiprid, Emidachloropid, Azadirachtrin, Fubenzamide, Chloropyriphos, Quinalphos, Thiamethoxam and Fipronil were used as plant protection. Agromin gold,agromin,biomino, Planofix and Cytozyme,Phytolan were used as growth regulator. Chemicals were used as and when required. Plucking Plucking was done by hand and also by plucking blades. Plucking varies from in a year. Plucking quality is low to low-moderate. Even they pluck tender shoots upto 6 to 8. Post-harvest operation Only packing, storing and marketing were done. No grading was practised. So, market value of green leaves is low. Chapter-VI

126 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 106 Table-6.19 reveals that the mean dose of basal manuring mainly with FYM was observed as 503 gm per plant where the range varies from 200 to 2000 grams per plant per year. Although, SHGs use significantly more amount, but this dose is low in comparison to recommended dose of around (4-5) kg per plant recommended by the Tea Board, which also varies with the age of the garden. Here, (60-90)% technology gap was found. This may due to the fact that unavailability of organic manure in the area and they also minimise cost by this practice. FYM is also not available because of animal husbandry is rarely found in the rural area at present. Neemcake and sometimes vermi-compost are used but these are comparatively costly than FYM. The respondents are using Urea, Single Super Phosphate / Rockphosphate and Muriate of Potash as the source of nitrogen, phosphate and potash with mean doses of , and kg per acre per year respectively, which is very high in respect of recommended doses. In case of phosphate and potassic fertilizers also the same trend was found. Astonishingly, although Tea Board are providing regular training to the SHG farmers of both the districts, but there is no significant reduction of amount of fertilizers used by the farmers except in case of potassic fertilizers used among the districts, although, it is also very high in respect of standard recommendations. A technology gap of ( )%; (85-112)% and ( )% for nitrogen, phosphate and potash respectively was found on an average. Negative values indicates overdose of use of these entire major nutrient component. Table-6.19 represents adoption scenario of different package of practices by the small tea growers of North Bengal along with a district and group differentiated comparison. On an average 9.02 and 1.12 numbers of irrigations and weeding are practiced respectively by the respondents per year. The respondents of Jalpaiguri district generally irrigate their garden 5.82 times on an average where as average number of irrigation done by the respondents of Uttar-Dinajpur district is 12.22, which is significantly much higher than Jalpaiguri district. Uttar-Dinajpur district is an area with comparatively low rainfall than Jalpaiguri, therefore more irrigation is required. Average number of weeding followed by the respondents of Jalpaiguri district is 1.37 which is comparatively higher than Uttar- Dinajpur district. More rainfall may induce more weed growth in Jalpaiguri than Uttar Dinajpur. The irrigation and weeding activities of both districts are significantly different. Chapter-VI

127 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 107 These activities are observed almost same for SHG and Non-SHG respondents of both districts. Irrigation and weeding activities are significantly different among SHG and Non- SHG respondents. However, there is no such recommendation for these practices by the Tea Board, they use it as and when required. Table-6.19 Adoption level of package of practices Variables Dose of basal manure in gram/plant Amount of Nitrogen (kg/acre/yr) Amount of Phosphate (kg/acre/yr ) Amount of Potash (kg/acre/yr) No. of irrigation No. of weeding North Bengal Picture Min Max Mean CV(%) District wise comparison Jal UD t-value *** 19.45*** 4.91** Comparison between SHG and Non-SHG SHG Non-SHG t-value 2.88** * 3.04** *p<0.05 **p<0.01 p< Variation in package of practices followed by the tea growers according to the age of the garden Tea, is a perennial crops and it starts to yield from two years and gives economic yield upto years of age (so far the estate garden is concerned). The different package of practices such as irrigation, fertilizer application, weeding, plucking etc varies in different ages of the plantations. At the time of conducting study, base data was collected from different small gardens with age varies from 2 to 14 years. Available numbers of Chapter-VI

128 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 108 gardens with different ages from our sample were considered for calculation. Different types of fertilization programmes, irrigation, weeding and plucking activities are provided to these tea plants by the small growers. This age wise variation of package of practices is discussed below. Table 6.20 represents the amount of N, P and K applied in different ages of tea plantation. It is observed that applied nitrogen fertilizer varies from ( ) kg/acre and phosphate and potash fertilizer varies from ( ) and ( ) kg/acre. Figure 6.8 depicted a comparative picture of recommended doses and practiced doses of the said fertilizers (also see in table-6.20). It is seen that the practiced doses is 3-4 times higher than the recommended dose all in cases of N, P and K-fertilizers. So far tea is concerned higher fertilization is very injurious for the quality green leaves. Table-6.20 Age wise variation of different package of practices: Age of the garden (yr) Practiced package (kg/ac/yr) Recommended package (kg/ac/yr) N P K N P K Chapter-VI

129 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 109 Amount of N (Kg/ac) Age of the garden (yr) A y = 0.237x R² = Technology Gap (-)180% to (-) 204% Practiced Recommended Amount of P (Kg/ac) y = 0.38x R² = Technology Gap (-) 85% to (-) 112% Practiced Recommended Age of the garden (yr) B Amount of K (Kg/ac) Age of the garden (yr) y = x R² = Technology Gap (-)167% to (-) 222% Practiced Recommended C Fig-6.8 Recommended and practiced doses of N, P & K [A = N-fertilizer B = P-fertilizer and C = K-fertilizer] Chapter-VI

130 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 110 Table-6.21 presented the year wise number of irrigations, number of weeding and number of plucking. Number of irrigation varied from 6.9 times to times according to age of plantations whereas number weeding varies from 1 to 2 and number of plucking per year varies from to The number of irrigation although more or less at par with the practices followed by estate plantations but number of weeding and number of plucking are less in number in comparison to estate gardens. Lowest and highest numbers of irrigation have been observed in 4 th and 8 th years of plantations respectively. Weeding number varies from 1 to 2 times according to age, where as minimum numbers of weeding seen in 3 rd to 4 th years of age and maximum number has been seen in 2 nd years age of tea plantations. Average number of plucking varies from to times where minimum number of plucking (20.14 times) has been observed in 10 th years of age and maximum numbers of plucking (26.40 times) has been seen in 12 th year age of small plantations. Table-6.21 Variation in irrigation, weeding and plucking according to age Age of the garden (yr) No. of Irrigations/yr No. of Weedings/yr No. of Pluckings/yr Trend lines with associated values of x-coefficient from the figure 6.8 indicate that amount of nitrogen fertilizer, amount of K-fertilizers, numbers of weeding and numbers of Chapter-VI

131 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 111 plucking per year do not vary in respect of the age of the garden. However, amount of P- fertilizer and the number of irrigations varies in respect of time which has an increasing trend. Although, Tea Board recommends increasing amount of fertilizers with the increasing age at least upto 5 years, but from the values of associated R 2 (very small values indicates that it could not explain that the variation in doses is due to age of the garden) we can conclude that although small farmers use a very high doses of fertilizers (about 2-3 times than the recommended) but they do not increase the dose according to age. However, when the dose itself is very high, there is no question of increase of doses over the ages. This is due to the unawareness and lack of knowledge. No. of weeding/year y = 0.019x R² = No. of irrigations given /year y = 0.283x R² = Age of the garden Age of the garden A B No. of pluckings/year C y = 0.114x R² = Age of the garden Fig.6.9: Age wise variation in application of different inputs practised by small tea growers of North Bengal with regression lines. Chapter-VI

132 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N Yield performance From table-6.22, we can find that respondents of Uttar-Dinajpur district wait for 1.62 years for first plucking where as Jalpaiguri district wait for 1.40 years for first plucking which are significantly different. Average number plucking followed by the respondents of Jalpaiguri district is which are comparatively higher than Uttar-Dinajpur district; but number of plucking activities among these groups is statistically at par. The mean yield is found to be as qt per acre per year where the range varies from to 120 qt. The average yield of tea leaves of Jalpaiguri district is 82.8 qt per acre per year which is quite less than the average yield of Uttar-Dinajpur district ( qt). These yields are significantly different. The average yield of SHGs and Non-SHGs are almost equal and they are statistically at par. If we compare this level of yield with the estate gardens, it is found that the yield is at 10% to 50% higher. And this is due to the unscientific methods of plucking. So far the tea is concerned, it is not worthy that how much quantity is produced, but it is worthy that how much quality leaves have been produced. Although apparently it seems that the production under small tea growing system is higher than the estate gardens, but it is not a welcoming fact. To get more yield, STGs practice unscientific plucking which debar them to get good prices from their products. Again, if we compare number of plucking of small tea growers with the estate garden we can find that estates although wait for first plucking upto 2-3 yrs. but they pluck more frequently than the small growers at the rate of 3-4 times a month in the productive months totalling around numbers per year. The causes of less plucking among the small growers may be heavy plucking even upto 6 to 8 tender shoots in Uttar Dinajpur. This widens the period for the next pluck. But the average yield per acre of plantation per year is considerably higher than estates. It may due to the fact that estates take care to pluck quality leaves only. The quality of the green leaf of the estates is very high in comparison to small growers. In a standard plucking, the amount of quality leaves varies from 40-50% in estates whereas it is only 22-25% in case of STGs. This leads to lower price realisation of green leaves. The price of made tea comes out from STGs harvest starts only from Rs. ( ) per kg which is much less than the estates. Chapter-VI

133 R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 113 A: Heavy machine plucking leading to low quality leaf B: Manual plucking C: Coarse plucking (5 or more leaves around 6 to 8 length D: Ideal plucking (2 leaves and a bud) Plate-4 (A-D): Scenario of small growers tea plucking Chapter-VI