Aizawl (mizonews.net): Officials of NIB Industries and Horticulture department headed by NLUP Nodal Minister H.Liansailova on Monday convened a meeting in which they held talks on the problems faced by the tea planters at Biate village and its nearby areas.

The meeting also addressed the problems faced and informed by the only factory in the area- Samuel Tea Factory.

Under the earlier NLUP assistance, there were around 325 farmers from Biate and its nearby villages who had started tea garden. But since there is no Tea Factory where they could sell their produce, as a result of which they had to abandon their cultivation.

Regarding this, Chief Minister Lalthanhawla has also expressed concern acknowledging that tea plantation could help boost the Mizoram economy by way of creating economic source for quite a number of families. As the Chief Minister felt the need to take initiatives for creating reliable economic source for cultivators of Biate and neighbouring villages through tea plantation, a meeting headed by Liansailova also felt the need to take steps for the welfare tea planters and for Samuel Tea Factory.

Samuel Tea Factory was recently started at Biate, and on April 10 the machines were successfully tested. After the factory was established, 45 families come to continue their works at tea garden. From the estimated 30 quintals tea leaves stack per week, Samuel Tea Factory extracts 6 quintals every week, which is but still inadequate for feeding Mizoram.

A machine capable of extracting 5000 quintals of tea leaves in a year is placed at Samuel Tea Factory. But as it is run as of now by individual, the factory still could not work with its full capacity. Therefore, the meeting yesterday resolved to provide the requirements in order to render work with full capacity- Rs. 24.40 lakhs, and working capital Rs. 32.77 lakhs, for which the meeting decided to ask Apex Board to provide hand-holding support under NLUP.

Keywords: Mizoram News