STiR tea & coffee industry international 31
Use of such fertilizers expanded and, as
trade with Russia grew through the 1970s
and tea farmers were keen to increase their
crop in order to sell more and more tea, the
use of chemical fertilizers became almost an
obsession.
The excessive use of agro-inputs, increased
yields, and the importation of mass produc-
tion machinery to the tea estates led to reduced
tea quality so that Darjeeling began to lose its
reputation and position in the world market.
And then, in the early 1980s, the Russian mar-
ket collapsed and the heavily-oxidized dark
brown Darjeeling teas that the Russians had
demanded found no buyers in other markets.
The economy of Darjeeling crashed, political
parties in the region started agitating for an in-
dependent state, and money was not ploughed
back into the estates. As a result, many were
forced to close down.
Assam faced similar problems as a result
of local terrorism, rising water levels, changing
weather patterns, and an unwillingness on the
part of some tea growing companies to address
long-term problems and start investing money
back into the estates and the environment.
Workers return from the garden with baskets of fresh leaf
