Guwahati June 28 : For the tea industry, there appears to be some good news. New tea clones of high yield as well as quality may soon be available for plantation.
Tocklai Experimental Station, based in Jorhat in Upper Assam, has claimed to have developed four tea clones of high yield and these tea clones would be released for commercial plantation by the year-end.
Sources from Tocklai said that these four tea clones have been under developing stage for almost five years and the experimental station hopes to release them for commercial plantation by November this year.
The clones are aimed at enhancing the quality of the tea and will have rich colour and liquor. These new clones would preserve the unique qualities of Assam tea as well, he said.
The tea industry has welcomed this initiative of Tocklai as it feels it has been a long time that any good tea clone, that has both quality as well as enhanced yield, has been developed.
"We welcome this move of Tocklai to develop new clones. We hope that these clones will be viable for plantation as in past there had been many instances when clones failed to live up to expectation of the industry, as a result they were discarded," said Bidyananda Barkakoty, chairman of North Eastern Tea Association (NETA).
However, few other tea industry sources have expressed skepticism as according to them, Tocklai could hardly develop any viable clone in recent memory.
"Tocklai keep on developing clones but we never get to see any viable clone that suits us," said a tea industry source.
Since the Indian tea industry is, of late, concentrating on enhancing quality to maintain its hold in the international market, Barkakoty said that tea clones of high yield would not just suffice. The clones will have to ensure quality along with yield. "In today's date, quality was more important for the tea industry than yield," Barkakoty added.
Moreover, the tea industry of Assam is also in need of a tea clone that can withstand the rough weather condition that the state has been witnessing lately. "Trends show that rainfall has been on a decline in Assam. Due to climatic changes the state now witnesses long rainless spells, thus affecting the tea industry. So, what we need now, or what we will surely need in near future, is a tea clone that is drought resistant," said Barkakoty.
A tea clone, named TV1, developed by Tocklai many years back has been the best of all the clones developed by it, and thus is still being used for commercial plantation across the state by the tea industry.
Tocklai Experimental Station is one of the largest tea experimentation and research centres in the world.
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