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Success Stories

Success Story of Manjacombai Village in Pruning

Manjacombai is a village situated in Kundah region with over 150 houses solely depending on Tea as their livelihood. The Tea in this area was due for pruning but the growers were unable to prune the fields due to crisis in the small sector tea industry for over 5 years.

Sakthi SHG of Manjacombai village was selected to run the Quality service  centre under QUP in the month of October 2003.  The SHG procured fine leaf from the members and other growers in the village and supplied to Akshaya Tea factory which opted to link with the SHG and send the lorry for collecting the leaf.  The factory has paid fine leaf price of Rs.9/- in comparison to the normal green leaf price of Rs.4/- in that region.  The factory with the SHG and its own estate leaf made premium tea in the brand name “Professor” and was fetching over Rs.55/- average in the Coonoor auction.

Realizing the benefit of differential price that the growers were able to get for quality raw material the growers of the village decided to prune their fields inorder to get quality raw material and supply consistently to the factory.  With the help of UPASI –KVK-QUP the village leader approached United Bank of India, Coonoor for a special pruning loan.  The bank after scrutinizing the proposal agreed to sanction loan to the growers.

A team of senior members along with the village leader formed a committee to govern the pruning activity.  The growers registered with village committee for pruning and on verifying various details the committee recommended the growers to the bank for loan.

The United Bank of India has disbursed over Rs.5.00 lacs to Manjacombai village for 70 growers for pruning their tea fields and the growers have pruned over 75 acres out of 200 acres of tea in the village.  They have also been paying back the loan in regular installments to the bank with the help of the committee.

Quality Tea Procurement and Service Center By Women SHG in T. Manihatty Village

T.Manihatty is one of the most familiar villages in Nilgiri District which is in Ooty taluk located 6 Km from Kattabettu.  This village comprises 160 houses with an area of around 300 acres. 

Out of 280 acres comprising tea fields, 230 acres are planted with B/6/61                (UPASI-9) variety and the remaining 50 acres are covered with seedling varieties.  Vegetable crops cover  an area of 15 acres and there is less than 5 acres as waste land.

During the crisis period the tea growers were getting only Rs. 3.00 to 4.00 per kg green leaf due to which they faced very difficult problems.  In July 2003 a village awareness campaign was conducted by Tea Board UPASI KVK under Quality Upgradation Programme and Eswaran women Self Help group consisting of 17 members were motivated to start a Quality Tea Procurement and Service Centre (QTPSC). 

The group immediately established the Quality service centre with the help of UPASI-KVK officials and procured 80% fine leaf which was supplied to M/s IBS Bought Leaf Tea Factory. In the initial period the women SHG struggled to procure fine leaf from the growers though they were able to get Rs.9.50 per kg of green leaf.

Differential price that the group was able to get for fine leaf ranged from highest of Rs.11.00 a kg to average of Rs.9.00 a kg and lowest of Rs.7.50 a kg of green leaf.

Apart from this, the women self help group members were getting paise 50 per kg green leaf as service charge.   As of now they have earned Rs.1,31,262.50 as service charge  and have used this amount for purchasing of straight fertilizers, chemicals, micro nutrients, etc.

Other activities of Eswaran  women SHG

This women self help group is also rendering other services to their leaf suppliers like supplying  manures , dolomite, micronutrients, pesticides, and weedicides at subsidized cost. The details of the services offered by the group year wise are given hereunder;

Success Story of Kattabettu Tea Factory Moving  Towards Quality Among Indco Factories

Industrial Co-operative Tea Factories (INDCO) established for the benefit of the small tea grower community in Nilgiris by state government. The first Indco factory was established in 1962 in Kundah region.  There are 15 Indco factories established at different parts of the Nilgiris.

Kattabettu Indco was set up to cater to the growers in Coonoor and parts of Kotagiri region since it is situated in between these two regions. The factory has around 850 small tea growers registered with it who supply leaf from their small holdings in and around the factory. This factory was also the beneficiary of Tea Board’s Factory Upgradation / Modernization scheme and had increased its trough capacity and other machineries for making premium teas.

The factory decided to make premium teas to cater to the “Ooty Tea” a premium brand Tea of Indcoserve.  Kattabettu Indco General Manager approached to UPASI – KVK – QUP to conduct a QUP factory experiment cum demonstration inorder to produce Quality teas.

The factory experiment was conducted at Kattabettu Indco under Quality Upgradation Programme in November 2004.  During the factory experiment the need for procuring Quality Raw material was emphasized upon inorder to get Quality teas and better price.

                          
*  For quality leaf Rs.10/per kg.

Kattabettu Indco Tea Factory takes the credit of being the first Indco Tea Factory to have introduced differential price for quality raw material among the 15 operating Indco Tea factories.  The factory introduced differential price and announced Rs.10/- for fine leaf in the month of January 2005 while the normal green leaf price was Rs.7.50 in that region.

The Quality centre linked with Kattabettu Indco were supplying good leaf with quantity at one stage reaching 9000 kg a day and the factory paid Rs.10/- a kg for fine leaf while the normal green leaf price was Rs.3.75 in that region.  Kattabettu Indco also takes the credit of being the first factory among the 15 Indco Tea factories to be linked QUP SHGs Quality Tea Procurement and Service Centres.

With the continuous support from Tea Board UPASI-KVK’s Quality Upgradation Programme and subsidies from the state and central government, Kattabettu Indco Tea factory is progressing steadily towards achieving the target of making 100% quality Teas and demand price for the same.  The factory also plans to share the profits with its member growers who supply the required raw material which is the primary requisite for the achieving the target. 

Success story in Floriculture

Veena and Mahalakshmi Self help groups were started during 2001 by the NGO MYRADA with 40 members, belonging to Keraida village of Coonoor taluk.  The group used to collect the monthly savings among the members and used to distribute loan within the members.  In  the year 2003 with their savings amount  of 1 lakh rupees approached KVK for taking up commercial activity of  carnation cultivation under controlled condition for an area of 1000m2.  They attended the seminars and trainings conducted by KVK during 2003 and were also taken to various floriculture units in Pune, Bangalore and also to flower auction centre, Bangalore by  the  state horticulture department.  This encouraged the members of the group to venture into floriculture.

Total technical assistance for procurement of good planting materials from  different companies, soil preparation and  sterilization of planting, netting, pinching disbudding, harvest and post harvest, control of pest and disease, bunching packing etc., was given by the  KVK.  Guidance on availing loan from State Bank of India, Ketti was also  arranged for 12 lakh rupees and  subsidies from Central Government (National Horticulture Board) and State Government (Horticulture Department) to the tune of 4 lakhs of the project cost was made available to the groups.  The groups started harvesting the flowers during May, 2006 and were also linked to buyers like SLG flowers & Nilgiris flowers who used to come to the field gate to procure the flowers, and also marketed through the flower auction centre, Nilgiris.  The price of Rs.3/- flower was fixed by the buyers and till now 3 lakh flowers have been harvested and fetched an income of Rs.1 lakh.

The members of the groups are working in their own unit on rotation basis. Two women workers are employed on permanent basis and monthly salary of Rs.1500 per month is paid.  Based on the   work load and season of flowering, 4 to 8 workers are engaged on temporary basis. About Rs. 10 lakhs of loan amount is repaid to the bank and balance of 2 lakh is yet to be paid.  The group has also planted open cultivated flowers like alstromeria in the vacant areas.

Success Story of Sri Nanjundaiah, Small tea growers Society

Tea Board, along with UPASI-KVK has been implementing various projects for the small tea growers inorder to upgrade the quality of tea.  To start with, quality tea leaf procurement sheds were setup with the help of Women Self Help Groups and the growers supplying tea leaves were paid more than the prevailing normal price.  Due to this there was a marked improvement in the quality of tea.

Further to the above successful project, inorder to intensify the quality movement, Tea Board and UPASI-KVK have started encouraging the setting up of small tea grower’s societies.

In addition to the obvious quality improvement a lot of additional benefits have been given by the Tea Board to the growers.  Due to this many small tea growers societies have been started all over Nilgiris District.  Some of the societies have been functioning exceptionally well procuring quality tea leaves and paying very good prices to the suppliers.  ‘Sri Nanjundaiah, small tea growers society’ of T. Manihatty village in Ooty taluk is one among them.

This society was started in September 2007.  There are 130 members in this society.  Nearly 40,000 kg of green leaf is being procured every month.  These leaves are supplied to Terramia tea factory, Kullacomby.  The small growers are being paid 2 to 3 rupees more than the normal price for their produce.  Steps have been taken to ensure that all the benefits promised by the tea board reach the society.  The society has decided to increase the quantum of their procurement without compromising on quality and efforts have been taken in this direction.  The small growers of the village are very much satisfied due to the fact that they have been realizing a very fair price for their quality produce through the efforts of the society.

The details of quantity of price and suppliers are given below:

Vigneshwar Tea Factory is situated at Aravenu in Kotagiri region.  It is a 100% bought leaf factory procuring medium quality leaf from villages situated in and around the factory.  The factory as part of its efforts to upgrade its produce, as a first step invited Tea Board UPASI – KVK to conduct a village awareness campaign at the factory premises.  The campaign has conducted on February 2002.  Around 250 growers participated in this campaign.

As step two the factory availed the Tea Board subsidy for upgrading its factory capacity and machineries under factory modernization scheme to produce quality teas.  All machineries starting from the trough to the drier were upgraded during 2002.  New troughs and googhie were installed.  The floor fermentation area was also increased.

Having modernized the factory as step three, a factory experiment cum demonstration was conducted by UPASI – KVK for one week during June 2003 manufacture quality teas.  During the experiment the available fine leaf was segregated and processed separately.  All other areas of manufacture from rolling to drying were monitored by the factory team throughout the experiment.

The normal teas had a TF level of 0.43 and the experiment teas showed a tremendous increase in TF level to 0.77 which increased the quality.  Encourage by the quality improvement the factory decided to increase the intake of fine leaf.

As step four the factory linked itself to one of the quality tea procurement and service  centre situated in Naduhatty.  The factory decided to give an additional price Rs.2/- per kg for fine leaf supplied by the quality center.  The factory starting with a procurement of 100 kg of fine leaf a day is presently getting 3000-5000 kg of fine leaf a day from many quality tea procurement and service centres.

The tea processed from the fine leaf procured from the above quality centres are being packed and cataloged as Vigneshwar premium tea.  The tea sold at an average price of around Rs.52/- in the first sale itself which was Rs.13/- above district average, whereas Vigneshwar (Ordinary) was fetching a price of Rs.39.00 per kg only. (2002)

The factory for the past five years has been paying Rs.2- 3 more than the prevailing green leaf rate in the region to small grower.

As a result of the continuous quality moment the factory has been winning the prestigious Golden Leaf India Awards for the past three years (2006,07 and 2008).  It has surpassed many corporate factories in terms of quality.  It has been among the topmost factories realizing a very high market price in the auctions.  This success has been transferred to the small tea growers supplying leaves to the factory by way of better green leaf price.

Formation of Eswar Tea Growers’ Society for additional income

T.Maniharry is a village situated 18 kms away from Krishi Vigyan Kendra. UPASI-KVK introduced Tea procurement centre concept under quality upgradation programme in 2004.  Initially they formed self help group consisting of 15 members then it was converted into society with 80 members.

The main aim of the quality tea leaf procurement centre is to procure quality green leaf to offer better price to the small tea growers in the village.  All the cultural operations like plucking, pruning, micronutrient application, weeding etc., were taught by the UPASI-KVK staff members.  Also formalities to run a society were taught to the growers scientifically by training and demonstration.  This society is linked to High field tea factory which is procuring quality leaf.  So far 4,10,000 kgs green leaf were procured by the society.  The additional price given by the society is Rs.2-3 for the quality leaf thus the society could earn the extra profit of about Rs.10,25,000/- besides the society could earn Rs.2.05,000/- as commission.

Apart from this the society availed loan of Rs.25,00,000/-  from Indian Bank, Coonoor and purchased the inputs like straight fertilizers, Dolomite etc., at wholesale price and supplied to the farmers for minimum price.  Moreover the leased lands of the society members were reimbursed.
By seeing the improvement, High field Tea factory has supplied a computer to the society to maintain their accounts and connect with KVK in due course to solve their field problems.  In 2008 the society received ‘Manimegalai Award’ from the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.