Traditional tea cultivation in China"s Jinuoshan area, unlike in most other places, ensures ecological balance

From the green brew of Wan Tu, tea has found homes everywhere and come in diverse incarnations

Kurseong, March 23: Some residents of Ambootia Tea Estate, 6km from here, have formed a farmers' club and tied up with Nabard in a bid to solve the unemployment problem that is plaguing the hills.

KOLKATA: The finance minister's farm loan waiver will help 1.10 lakh small tea growers become more competitive. Small growers contribute 25% to the national tea production, which stood at 940 million kg in 2007. The Budget has also abolished cash transaction tax, which was a burden to the tea industry in particular. "Nearly 80% tea estate workers do not have bank accounts and have to be paid in cash. For the tea industry, which is yet to come out of a crisis, this tax was an added burden,' Ambootia group chairman Sanjay Bansal said. There are 3 million direct workers in the country's tea estates. The estates also provide indirect employment to some 1.5 million people. The wage bill of the industry is around Rs 80 crore. The payment to workers are made on weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.

UDALGURI, Feb 18

you see a lot of butterflies hovering around coffee plantations. The reason is the plantations have scattered stands of trees for shade. And a change in ecology can affect their numbers. Over

Sri Lanka pulls the plug on exports

Or, will they be mere transit points?