Hapless tea, jute farmers of Seemanchal expect new Bihar govt to be more responsive

Forbesganj (Araria)/Kishanganj: It may not be common knowledge that till two decades ago, there used to be an impressive production of jute in Seemanchal region. But lack of encouragement and apathetic attitudes of successive governments in the state as well as Centre, the production was reduced to nothing – somewhere around 12 quintals (1 quintal=100 kg) over the years. With a production of around 24 lakh quintals every year 10 years back, it was an opportunity for the state to potentially become one of the largest producers of jute in the country. Despite being rich in jute production, no jute mill was set up in the four districts – Purnea, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria – of the north east Bihar bordering Nepal and West Bengal. Cultivating jute is hard work. Once the crop is ready, it has to be cut and soaked in water. Then after separating the jute, it has to be dried. It is then sold in the market. But due to shortage of labourers and difficulty in getting the right price from the market, the farmers are facing difficulty to even manage their expenses. They are forced to quit jute cultivation and start growing maize, rice and sun flower cultivation ensuring the industry dies a slow death. Unable to make ends meet, labourers have started to migrate to bigger cities. Hari Prakash Singh, divisional jute officer for the four districts, says jute yarn production is the “victim of successive governments’ neglect”. “Seemanchal used to be the largest producer of jute yarn in the country. Had there been at least two jute mills in any two of the four districts, migration – the major problem of the area – would have never arisen. People of the area used to depend on jute for each of their domestic needs – be it the marriage ceremony of their daughters, education of their children or paying back the debt they had taken from money lenders or banks. But to the apathy of the government, a flourishing cash crop was allowed to almost vanish,” he told Firstpost. [caption id=“attachment_2468238” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] He said huge pieces of land measuring around 80-100 acres were acquired several times in Kishanganj, Forbesganj (Araria district) and Purnea and even foundation stones were laid at some places but the industry is yet to come up. In the absence of proper mechanism and minimum support price (MSP), intermediaries are ruling the roost. The MSP for the crop year 2015-16 has been fixed at Rs 3,200/quintal; whereas, the open market price is Rs 4,000-Rs 4,500 (depending on the quality). Exploiting the financial condition of farmers, who grow the crop on smaller piece of land and try to save transportation cost, the middlemen purchase their product at prices much lower than the MSP and sell it at higher rates. Because of these intermediaries, even big markets like Gulabbagh in Purnea are not able to give fair price of jute to the farmers. As per the farmers, it will be highly motivating if the government offers help for cultivation of jute and fix a minimum market price. Due to unavailability of jute mills, the jute yarn produced here are sent to West Bengal, which has 40-45 functional mills, and Nepal for production fibres used in making curtains, carpets, warm clothes and wall-hangings. There are only three functioning jute mills in Bihar - one at Muktapur in Samastipur district, the second at Purnea and the third one in Katihar. The maximum production the three mills stands at 80-85 tons per day. Though the government, Sinha says, has launched a pilot project under which jute growers are given good quality seeds, fertilisers, free insecticides and pumping sets for irrigation at very nominal rates. but it is insufficient, Sinha adds. Only 4,000 cultivators have got benefit of the scheme. Forbesganj-based Moolchand Golchha, a stockist and chief of Jute Association, says government agencies like Food Corporation of India (FCI) do not buy jute bags made in India. “They import it from Bangladesh.” The situation here, according to him, can be improved if private players step in. “At least Rs 75 crore and 50 acres of land are required to set up a jute mill with a production capacity of 100 tonnes per day. Such a big investment is possible only when there is safety, security and constant supply of power. Though the state government has worked on these two major concerns and improved the law and order situation, the future is still uncertain,” said Golchha. Situation for tea cultivation is not too great in the region either. Despite having no tea policy in the state, Seemanchal’s Kishanganj district produces around 17.50 crore kg tea leaves per day on 25,000 acres of land. Over 50,000 labourers depend on this industry for their livelihood. Of the total production, 3.85 crore kilogram of tea should be processed every day. But the five industries here collectively produce only 50 lakh kilograms. The rest leaves are sent to West Bengal. Jawed Usmani, who has a tea garden on 10 acres of land in Kishanganj, says he will no more grow tea leaves as it is sold at Rs 3-5 per kilogram which constitutes just the labour cost. “Tea producers have a monopoly since there is an absence of government’s policy. Fewer processing units and large production compounds the problem. When growers go to market with tea leaves, they are exploited by factory owners. The farmers have no option but to sell the leaves at the rate fixed by the factory owners,” he said. Notably, labourers get Rs 110 for plucking 26 kg of leaves. In Darjeeling, the rate for plucking is Rs 115 per 8 kg. The worst victims are those who rent tea plantations on lease. First, they have to pay land owners and then they are exploited by the middlemen and factory owners, Usmani added. Sunil Daftari, a well-known tea grower and manufacturer, whose brands include Rajbari, Gold and Kishanbari, says the climate and soil here are suitable for tea growing but the industry is the victim of government’s neglect and faulty policies. “Had the government wanted to promote it as a source of its revenue, Kishanganj would have been counted among the major growers and manufacturers of tea,” he says. Talking about the problems, he adds “We cannot own more than 30 acres of land due to ceiling. The wage problem is there just because of not having a tea policy, which will also help us to own a maximum of 100 acres of land on one name for producing tea only. Shortage of labourers is one of the major problems affecting the industry.” “Tea gardening is a one-time investment. After every seven days, leafs are plucked making it a permanent source if income for the labourers. It does not require fresh spending after every 3-4 months like farmers have to do in case of other productions like rice, wheat, etc.,” says Debasheesh Sanyal, manager of a tea garden.