Assam’s small tea growers get tech push to face climate change impact

With weekly weather data sent directly to their mobile phones, small scale tea growers can decide when to do what with their crops

For Kuladhar Moran as a small tea grower in Assam, unpredictable weather is no longer a matter of concern as he is always abreast of the weather change. The 35-year-old, who grows tea on a three-acre land in Kordoiguri village in Assam’s tea hub Tinsukia district, is equipped with weather data for the week, based on which he can decide when to irrigate or use fertilisers and pesticides on his tea estate.

Excessive rain, which has become a much more unpredictable as a fallout of climate change, is impacting small tea growers the worst, create erosion of top soil as well as cause washing away of pesticides. Top soil erosion means the fertility of soil decreases, while pesticides washing away causes financial strain as it has to be done all over again.

All these issues are now being tackled thanks to Solidaridad Asia, which introduced a Smart Agri app a few months ago straight to mobile phones. The app, developed by Solidaridad Asia—a civil society organisation promoting sustainability in agriculture and other farm sectors—provides satellite-based data about rainfall, temperature, humidity and weather-related information direct to farmers through their mobile phones.

Thanks to this app, Moran now gets rain forecast for the week on his mobile phone.

“As rain has become unpredictable over the years, it has become difficult for us to take appropriate decisions about irrigation and use of fertilisers. As we did not have rain forecast, many times the fertilisers or pesticides we sprayed in tea gardens were washed away by unpredictable showers. This caused loss, as we had to use fertilisers or pesticides again,” Moran, who took to tea cultivation in 2000, told DH.

At least 43 weather data devices have been installed by Solidaridad Asia inside small tea gardens in Tinsukia, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Udalguri districts where many have taken to small-scale tea cultivation over the years. Assam has over 1.5 lakh small tea gardens, contributing to nearly half of the state’s tea production.

Assam is the highest tea growing state with over 850 big tea estates, but small tea growers have made their presence felt over the years and now employs nearly three lakh people.

"The devices capture information on weather, soil moisture, pest profile, leaf wetness, crop growth etc, and transmit it through satellite. It is then received by our system and reflected in our dashboard which is interpreted by our experts; necessary advisories are then generated. Based on the interpretation done on a weekly basis, the advisories are disseminated to growers through the Smart Agri Advisory App or through a Missed Call Alert System for those not having smartphones," said Mokshadev Das, programme manager of Solidaridad Asia in Assam.

"This may be considered as a milestone for farmers facing the real challenge of climate change impact. Farmers are incurring loss due to unpredictable weather conditions and rains and the weather data can be a game changer for sustainability of their business and livelihood," Das explained.

Solidaridad Asia has already covered 50,000 small tea growers in Assam since 2019 (70,000 in the country) under its Trinitea programme, which aims at digital assessment of each grower, need-based training on smart-agri programme, empowering their participation in the supply chain through self-help groups, farmer producers' group, and connecting them to tea maker, seller, and finally to the consumer, Das said.

“We designed 60 demo plots covering around 800 growers in each plot. These plots are provided with scientific equipment like solar equipment, power sprayer, pruning machine, vermi kit, plucking machine to help growers come out of the age-old filed practices to increase profits and make farming sustainable," Das said.