It was not long back that the tea farmers of West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya had completely given up on tea cultivation due to constant under realisation of prices and looked for other alternatives.
Price realisation had even plummeted to such a low that a farmer, Joresh A. Sangma, in a fit of anger and desperation, had set his small tea estate on fire.
But it's a completely changed scenario in the region now.
More and more villagers are taking up tea cultivation as it has now become rather a profitable and rewarding business in West Garo Hills.
A federation of the tea growing villagers, formed in the year 2007, was the beginning of the turnaround story, thanks to the initiative of two office bearers of West Garo Hills Community Resource Management Society (WGHCRMS) – Sitaram Sah and Daniel Ingty.
The turnaround was engineered by WGHCRMS and and a separate entity not associated with it, called called West Garo Hills Tea Farmers Federation (WGHTFF), except the help and support and the services of two of its office bearers – Sah and Ingty.
Sah proposed to the tea federation, which was in fact the brainchild of Sah and his colleague Ingty, to have a tea factory of their own.
Sah felt that if the region could have a community managed tea factory, it would encourage more farmers to take up tea cultivation, which according to him had "very good" prospect.
"In between we saw that there was a huge potential to start a community based tea factory," said Sah.
"Such a tea factory would not only encourage many more farmers to take up tea cultivation but would also lift the economy of the area," added Sah.
With active support from the district administration, including financial, the Rs. 1.75 crore proposed tea factory plan was kick-started.
Soon the tea federation floated tenders in regional newspapers inviting bids for plants and machineries for the proposed tea factory.
Sah said that in order to cut cost; the federation decided to construct the building on their own.
"Community participation has been in their (Garo people's) blood since ages. Hence it was never a difficult task to give shape to anything that needed community participation," Sah said.
He said that the land for the proposed factory was donated by a relatively rich farmer and the work at the construction site was volunteered by the farmers.
Today the factory is almost complete and in a day or two would be inaugurated. Sah and the tea federation office bearers hope to get it inaugurated by Garo Hills strongman Purno A. Sangma.
"This would be their own factory. All profits will be shared by the member farmers," says Sah.
Presently, 8006 farmers are members of the federation, and the number is fast increasing.
West Garo Hills produces 2,000 kgs of tea leaves now and Sah expects this figure to touch 3,00 very soon as tea cultivation has now become the most sough after business opportunity in the region.
WGHCRMS was an organisation under the central government, presently implementing the International Aid for Agriculture Development project of the central government in West Garo Hills district.
WGHCRMS was a separate entity not associated with the tea federation, called West Garo Hills Tea Farmers Federation (WGHTFF), except its help and support and the services of two of its office bearers – Sah and Ingty.
The farmers were caught in between the devil and the deep sea as they had to sell the tea leaves at the dictated price of the tea factory as it was the lone tea factory in the West Garo Hills region.
As under realisation of prices continued, a crisis crept into the tea industry of West Garo Hills which was reflected in distress in the lives of the tea cultivating farmers.
Moved by the plight of the poor villagers of the region, Sah and Ingty, who have been working for rural development projects in West Garo Hills for past several years, proposed the farmers to have an association of their own to further their cause collectively.
The West Garo Hills Tea Farmers Federation (WGHTFF) was formed in September 2007.
The farmers discovered the virtue of unity and decided to sell the tea leaves collectively.
Going by the advice of Sah and Ingty, farmers advertised in the regional newspapers inviting bids for the sale of the tea leaves in lot.
Finally they chose a tea factory in Goalpara in Assam, approximately 130km from Tura, the district headquarter of West Garo Hills, which promised to pay them Rs. 5.50 per kg as compared to Rs. 3.5 that the local tea factory was paying. The price has by now gone up to Rs. 9.10.
With the farmers now making profit, they even purchased two vehicles to ferry their tea leaves to Goalpara.
Till now they were hiring commercial vehicles for this.
With his idea having clicked, Sitaram Sah then decided to experiment a bit further and launched the idea of having a owned tea factory.
