Debabrata Saikia. File | Picture Credit score: Particular Preparations
Guwahati
Assam Congress urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to supply a particular package deal for the revival of Assam’s tea business.
In a letter to the Prime Minister on Thursday (18 September 2025), Congress Meeting Meeting Chief Debabrata Saikia additionally reminded the unfulfilled ballot guarantees of the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) to extend wages for tea colonial staff and grant scheduled tribes (ST) standing.
Saikia stated the Prime Minister visited Assam twice in 8 months in 2025, unveiling tasks of over 19,000 crores, highlighting his affiliation as “chaiwara.” Round 350,000 individuals who depend on the tea business additionally anticipated a complete rejuvenation package deal, however had been left upset, he stated.
The affect of local weather change
“The tea business in Assam, which contributes to 55% of India’s tea manufacturing, has skilled a catastrophic decline in manufacturing with a 7.8% drop in manufacturing and offering direct employment to greater than 1 million staff.
Saikia stated tea planters and producers have been hit onerous by climate-related vulnerabilities, together with irregular rainfall and rising temperatures in key tea progress areas akin to Yorhat in japanese Assam, exceeding the optimum 27°C required for high-quality tea cultivation. “These unimaginable statistics spotlight the pressing want for complete interventions to forestall the entire collapse of this vital business,” he stated.
Wage comparability
Congress leaders lamented the Prime Minister’s failure to resist the 2014 ballot and lamented his promise to lift wages for Assam’s tea staff to £351 a day. “Assam staff presently obtain between £220 and £250 per DIEM, considerably lower than their counterparts in Kerala and tea staff of £480 per day in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” he stated.
He additionally drew Mr Modi’s consideration to the light-shape of six staff within the small tea backyard that remained outdoors the scope of fundamental wage safety. These small tea gardens account for 40% of Assam’s whole tea manufacturing.
Saikia additionally known as for an overhaul of the Indian tea public sale system. That is “a manufacturing facility of extra and fewer lucky producers, particularly small tea producers, and bought leaves, as costs stay unstable, transparency is eroded and a lot of the tea shouldn’t be deployed.”
He identified that from greater than 40% two years in the past, solely 44% (600 million kg) of the annual manufacturing of 1,350 million kg of tea is offered via auctions. It’s because giant patrons choose personal gross sales and like to weaken competitors and worth discovery, he stated.
Unsold
“Unsold tea additionally rose sharply. Guwahati public sale recorded a 36% sale lot in 2025-26, rising to 23% within the earlier fiscal yr, however Kolkata elevated on the grassroots degree. Small tea growers are stated to have been permeated by inexperienced tea leaves within the case of inexperienced tea leaves.
He stated the challenges dealing with the tea business could be fastened by setting minimal sustainable costs for tea and inexperienced leaves linked to manufacturing prices.
Saikia additionally known as for a direct restoration of £50 crore annual funding to the Tocklai Tea Analysis Institute to rejuvenate key analysis packages for its local weather adaptation analysis mission targeted on growing drought-bearing tea varieties.
