The Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) scheme for replantation and rejuvenation of old tea plantations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu was launched here on Saturday by Union Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh.

In the next 15 years, about Rs 4,700 crore would be spent under the fund of which about Rs 1,200 crore would be in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the minister said.

Stressing the need to aggressively push the scheme, he said, this is the last hope for Indian tea. “If we miss the SPTF bus, Indian tea will lose its market to competitors,” he added. Pointing that the SPTF had been slow in taking off in south India, he said the main reason was the fact that 40 per cent of the produce came from small growers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, whose plantations were less than 25 acres.