Samchhoeling green tea plantation under Draagteng gewog in Trongsa will be a mini tea estate in few years time if all goes well as per the plans of the Trongsa dzongkhag administration.
The district is currently in the process of developing strategies to promote the mass cultivation of green tea in the community.
There is no proper record of annual tea production and area of land under green tea cultivation today. The proposal of gewog for about Nu 2 M in this fiscal year was dropped during the recent Dzongkhag Tshogdu. And the dzongkhag is yet to prioritize the cause in the coming financial year.
“At present, we do not have any problems marketing the green tea, in fact we are receiving comments from lot of people that the tea is not available and the production is less. So investing another million diversifying the product when the current product itself is insufficient in the market, it doesn’t sound viable,” said Tenzin Dorji, the Trongsa Dzongda.
On the other hand, more locals are into green tea cultivation. They have taken it as the only means of income in the local economy.
“In other places, people earn selling oranges, ginger, cardamom and betel nuts but here Green tea is our only cash crop,” said Tshewang Lhamo from Green Tea Cooperative in Draagteng, Trongsa.
“If we harvest about fifty packets this year, the yield increases to sixty next year. Moreover we need not have to guard the green tea from wild animals,” added Lemo, also from Draagteng Gewog, Trongsa.
“Since we earn a little every year, I have interest to cultivate more in the coming years. I am thinking to cultivate even in the fallow lands hereafter,” said Lemo, from Samchhoeling in Draagteng, Trongsa.
“The green tea yield is increasing every year but the problem is due to lack of fund, we struggle to purchase machinery. If we have better machinery, we could produce better quality green tea,” Dechen Pelden, the Accountant for Green Tea Cooperative in Draagteng, said.
“I proposed in the Dzongkhag Tshogdu to increase the area under cultivation by another twenty-four acres from forty-seven acres at present. Of course, it is not possible to achieve it at once but I have plans. For instance, if twenty-four people can take up an acre of land to cultivate the green tea, it is achievable,” shared Kuenzang Dorji, the Draagteng Gup.
It takes three years to raise the plant and it can be harvested for twenty years. It was first grown near Samchhoeling Palace. Village elders say the green tea was brought to Bhutan by His Majesty the Second Druk Gyalpo.
At present, the cooperative carries out the processing and packaging from the three-storied green tea house.
Passang
