GI Tag for European Union for Kangra Tea likely to be awarded soon

CHANDIGARH: Soon the Kangra tea will be awarded the Geographical Indication Tag (GI Tag) stated by the spokesperson of the Agriculture Department. He said that the subject of Tea Cultivation and Development transferred from the Industries Department to the Agriculture Department in April, 1999 and since then various steps have been taken to improve the tea cultivation in the state and particularly in Kangra. With the concerted efforts of the department, in the year 2005, the Kangra Tea was accorded the status of Geographical Indication Tag in India.

The spokesperson said that at present, the development and cultivation of Kangra Tea was being promoted and looked after by four departments i.e. Tea Board of India Regional office Palampur, Cooperative and Agriculture departments of the State and CSIR, IHBT Palampur and Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Agriculture University, Palampur.

He said that more than One Lakh plants were provided to the tea growers in the financial year 2021-22 and an area of 5.6 hectares was brought under fresh plantation. The department was providing the tea plants to the tea growers both for infilling in the existing gardens and also for fresh plantations at the doorstep of the growers (on FOR basis) at the nominal cost of Rs. 2 per plant to the General farmers and Rs. 1 per plant for the Scheduled Caste category farmers, added he.

The department is also organising the awareness training programmes in collaboration with Tea Board of India and scientific fraternity of Tea Department of Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Agriculture University (CSKHPKV), Palampur to impart the latest technical know-know being developed by the research institutes in the field of tea cultivation. As an initiative, a large scale Tea Fair was also organised at the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), Palampur in December last in which all big scale tea estates, small scale entrepreneurs and Self Help Groups and tea growers participated.