India's tea production fell by 16% to 61 million kg in April this year on account of drop in output in North and South India, latest Tea Board data said.
The country had produced 73.04 million kg of tea in the same month of 2011.
Production of the brew in North India declined by 16% to 41.63 million kg in April 2012 from 49.45 million kg in April, 2011, while output in South India fell by 18% to 19.36 million kg from 23.59 million kg in the same period.
In the first four months of the current calender year, tea production fell by 14% to 143.29 million kg from 167.46 million kg in January-April 2011.
Tea production has been lagging since the start of the current calender year.
According to the Tea Board data, tea output fell by 16% to 47.60 million kg in March this year from 56.73 million kg in the year-ago period.
Similarly, production of the brew fell 11% to 18.69 million kg in January 2012 from 20.93 million kg in the same month last year, while output was down by 4% to 16 million kg in February 2012 from 16.73 million kg in same period in 2011.
India is the world's second-largest producer and the biggest consumer of tea.