Tea: Brewing alternative livelihoods in Mon district

Ashikho Pfuzhe Mon | July 24   Lush-green tea gardens are gradually dotting the landscape of Mon district and brewing up an alternative source of livelihood for farmers dependent on jhum cultivation.   The growing number of tea gardens is also reversing the tea trade in Mon - from buying processed tea from neighbouring Assam, the Konyak tea farmers are now selling fresh plucked tea leaves to Assam and also brewing their own heady drink in their homes.  

Sayeang Tea Estate in Shiyong Village, some 32 km from Mon town, exemplifies the success story of tea plantation in the interior Mon district bordering Myanmar. The estate annually supplies 3 lakh kg of tea leaves to tea factories in Sonari, Assam.   The sprawling 250 acre tea estate, the biggest and oldest tea garden in the district, was jointly established by two brothers Honlei Konyak and Chingwang Konyak (former MP).   “My father Honlei Konyak didn’t get the opportunity to go to school and has been a farmer all his life. In the late 80’s when he went to Shillong to drop my elder brother studying in a boarding school, he saw countless numbers of tea plantations on the way in Assam. This made him think that if tea grows so well in neighbouring Assam why not try growing it in our village in Mon district,” said Phejin, daughter of Honlei.   Phejin, who runs ‘The Konyak Tea Retreat’, a working farmhouse located in the middle of the Sayeang Tea Estate, said her father started experimenting by planting tea in a small plot in the year 1989.   “Seeing that the tea plant adapted well to the climatic conditions here motivated my dad and his brother to expand the tea plantation,” she added.   The tea estate currently employs over a hundred Konyak men and women.   “In the beginning we employed Adivasis to work in our estate. But now we are only employing local men and women. While women are employed for tea leaf picking, the men do the pruning of tea plants. Many women are able to send their children to the school run by the tea estate through the earning they get from tea picking,” a supervisor of the tea estate said.   Though tea farmers in Mon do not have an organized body yet, sources hint that there are about 250 small tea gardens in Mon district. The owner of a small tea garden said Mon soil is ideal for growing tea and went on to claim that tea grown on elevated slopes, as in Darjeeling, tastes different and even better.   Since there is only one tea factory in Mon district, located at Tizit, many tea farmers are compelled to sell their produce in Assam, entailing a lot of difficulties.   “Foremost is the transportation problem due to bad roads. During hot days if the picked tea leaves are not disposed of in time, the rate goes down or they go waste. The nearest tea factory in Assam is 5-hour drive from here. Also manipulation by middlemen in Assam leads to fluctuation of tea price. The rate varies from Rs. 8-17 per kg as the market fluctuates,” said the veteran tea farmer Honlei.