Home ›› 15 Jun 2023 ›› Nation
Small bouts of rain have brought life back to the tea gardens in Moulvibazar’s Sreemangal upazila after a drought-like situation due to a lasting heatwave.
Although it rained in a small quantity, the owners of 92 tea orchards in the district hope that this will help achieve the production target.
During an on-spot visit to MR Khan tea garden of Sreemangal upazila on Tuesday, this correspondent found that the plants are looking livelier compared to the last few weeks.
Related sources said, even in small quantities, the rainfall is very beneficial for the plants and has come as a blessing.
Due to severe heat that resulted in a drought-like situation and also various diseases in the last few months, the production of tea has decreased drastically.
Excessive temperatures have increased insect attacks, including red spider mite infestations. The production had decreased to less than half at the beginning of the season.
According to Bangladesh Tea Board, the number of tea gardens in the country is 167 in plains and hills. Among them, most of the plantations are in Moulvibazar’s Sreemangal which is known as the capital of tea. Out of 1,56,192 acres of land covered by 92 gardens in the district, 85,140 acres of tea cultivation of Sreemangal is contributing 47.75 per cent of the total annual production.
Bangladesh Tea Research Institute’s Director (Acting) Dr Md Ismail Hossain said tea production decreased due to the lack of rain for a long time and due to high temperatures, as new leaves did not grow.
“The non-emergence of new buds, shortage of water, and infestation of red spiders had become a common problem in almost all of the orchards,” he said.
Due to the severe drought, the tea garden authorities were not able to protect the tea plants properly even by irrigating them every day with water pumps.
Heavy rains followed by extreme heat waves were beneficial for the tea industry. As a result of this rain, the tea plants have regained their vitality. Now the plants will soon sprout new buds. If the weather is favourable, the production of tea will exceed the target.
According to Bangladesh Meteorological Department’s Sreemangal office, the upazila recorded a maximum temperature of 39 degrees Celsius last month. And the maximum temperature this week is 36.5 degrees Celsius.
Bivlu Chandra Das, an observer of Sreemangal Meteorological Observatory, said the upazila and its surrounding areas received 2 mm of rain last Thursday, 57.2 mm on Friday and 17 mm at 6 pm on Saturday. However, last month and this month there has been a severe drought-like situation. This is the first continuous rainfall since the drought.
Meanwhile, if the weather remains favourable, the tea board and garden owners think that it will be possible to meet the target of tea production. In this case, the district will play a leading role in the record production of tea.
Bangladesh ranks ninth in tea production in the world despite various adversities. According to BTB sources, this year the target of tea production in the country has been set at 10.2 crore kg.
