Gogoi stresses on development of small tea gardens

Tezpur: Assam government is taking ‘special steps’ to help small tea growers in the interest of developing the economy of the state, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said on Saturday. The persistent efforts of the small tea growers, who were now facing myriad problems, had ushered in a tea revolution in the state and the government will extend all help to them to increase production, he said addressing a small tea grower’s convention-cum-workshop at the Tezpur university here. “You (tea growers) should get involved in the livelihood of the local people and strive for a ecologically balanced world through tea cultivation,” he said. There is monopoly of tea production by big tea companies, but this could be changed by the small tea growers and it was time to promote their products. He urged the tea companies to to be sympathetic to the small growers. Technology dissemination for improving field productivity, improvement of awareness levels on green leaf and forming self help groups are the other factors that could improve the plight of the small tea growers,” he said.