Sarvesh Kumar Shah¹ , Vipal A. Pate²

1 Castor Mustard Research Station, S.D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat), 385 506, India
2 Department of Agril Chemistry and Soil Science, College of Agriculture, S.D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat), 385 506, India
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Tea Science Research, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 5   doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2016.06.0005
Received: 20 Nov., 2015    Accepted: 13 Jan., 2016    Published: 28 Jan., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

S.K. Shah and Vipal A. Patel, 2016, Tea Production in India: Challenges and Opportunities, Journal of Tea Science Research, 6(5), 1-6 (doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2016.06.0005)

Tea being the most consumed of beverages next to the water on the earth. The commercial tea production was started since 1835. Tea production in India has seen a great jump of 304 percent, while the tea cultivated area increased by only 160 percent in the last five decades. The Estate owner, management, government and the laborers have equally contributed in increasing the production of Tea in India. Even though there are certain challenges for tea production in India like Low laborer productivity, High Cost of Production, Climate change, Seasonal effect, Injudicious nutrient management, Pest and disease, and consistent quality aspects of tea. Besides challenges India earned over Rs. 4000 crores foreign exchange in year 2014. Big domestic market, Scientific Soil and water management, Mechanization of plucking, Co-operative brought leaf tea factories, Reducing the cost of production by using renewable energy, Organic and Value added Tea, Tea tourism and above all the better support of the Government are some key opportunities to enhance further Indian Tea Industry.

Indian tea; Value added tea; Tea standard; Challenges; Opportunity