Replantation scheme slips on labour shortage

The ambitious replantation scheme for tea gardens, launched in July 2006, has fallen short of its target by 60 per cent in the first year of operation.

Meanwhile, replantation schemes worth Rs 2,335 crore for coffee, rubber, pepper, cardamom, coconut and cashew plantations await finance ministry clearance, Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, said here today.

"The tea replantaion scheme needs to cover 11,000 hectares every year to meet its target of 200,000 hectares over the next 15 years. But in the first year, 6,700 hectares have been covered," Ramesh added.

According to Ramesh, tea plantations in Tamil Nadu and Kerala are still to actively participate in the scheme.

"The reasons include labour shortage and high cost of labour in these two states. More over, the average cost of replantation has been fixed at Rs 2.4 lakh a hectare but tea plantations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu want Rs 3.4 lakh per hectare. We are discussing how to address these issues," Ramesh added.

The tea replantation scheme seeks to replace tea bushes in 2 lakh hectares of the total 5 lakh hectares under it over a period of 15 years. India exports 25 per cent of its total production of tea. As per the scheme, central government and state governments contribute 25 per cent of the fund allocation while the rest 50 per cent comprises soft loan.

Meanwhile, replantation schemes for other plantation sectors are yet to be implemented by the government as it is awaiting finance ministry clearance as well as from the Union Cabinet.

"The schemes have been cleared by the Expenditure Finance Committee but is waiting for final clearance by th e Finance Ministry," added Ramesh. These schemes will follow broadly the same patterns for fund allocation as that of the tea sector and will be spread over a period of 5-10 years.

To attract young talent to five research institutes under the plantation crop boards, the Commerce Ministry will soon moot a proposal to bring them at par with the ones under the Council of Scientiffic and Industrial Research (CSIR) as well as Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).

"Scientists and technical staff in the plantation board research institutes get far less salary than their partners in CSIR or ICAR laboratories. As a result, we are not able to attract young talent. The result is that, apart from rubber, our productivity has decreased in the rest of the plantation sectors," Ramesh said.

As a first step towards increasing research oriented work in the plantation boards, the cabinet has recently allowed filling up of technical 246 posts.

At the same time, the cabinet also relaxed norms of the Annual Direct Recruitment Plan for plantation board research institutes, which restricts intake of personnel to all government departments.