IIT Kharagpur Finds Out Ways to Produce Tea in Plains
IIT Kharagpur researchers make ideas to produce tea in the plain areas of Kharagpur and Purulia. So, high graded Indian tea will no more be only a p
<p>IIT Kharagpur researchers make ideas to produce tea in the plain areas of Kharagpur and Purulia. So, high graded Indian tea will no more be only a part of the produce from Assam, Darjeeling or Ooty.
Researchers from IIT Kharagpur devises methods to grow tea scientifically at a small garden inside the campus. Tea leaves can be processed in a cheaper way with newly built energy-saving machine. There are 17 villages at the vicinity of IIT campus, where commercial tea cultivation would soon begin.
A new project funded by the Tea Board, a team of scientists led by Professor Bijoy Chandra Ghosh of the Agricultural and Food Engineering Department has developed new CTC (crush, tea and curl) machine which occupy less space and consume less energy. “Irrigation can be done through sprinklers, soil is laterite and porous and shade management using an alternate tree crop will ensure that the temperature in the field never crosses 35-36 degrees centigrade,” Ghosh said.
“We are confident that the CTC machine would change the tea industry forever due to cost savings,” said President Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty Confederation of Indian Small Tea Grower's Association (CISTA).
“Purulia's district administration has also shown interest in starting tea cultivation using the IIT methodology,” Ghosh added furter.
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