Jhapa’s tea farmers demand chemical fertilisers

By Our Correspondent,Birtamod, Feb. 6: Tea farmers in Jhapa district have demanded with the government to manage chemical fertilisers for them.

The farmers have expressed concerns since tea farming has been greatly affected in lack of fertilisers. 

Citing that tea farming also requires chemical fertilisers as other agriculture sectors, Jhapa’s team farmers have requested the government to not view tea farming through different eyes.

Speaking at the interaction programme organised by Sambad Samuha in Birtamod, Jhapa, tea farmers, industrialists and stakeholders called the attention of all three tiers of government to help them receive chemical fertilisers such as urea, diammounium phosphate (DAP), potash and ammouna sulfate.

The stakeholders requested National Tea and Coffee Development (NTCD) Board to work as a bridge between farmers and the government, and also sought necessary support from the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Krishi Samagri Company and Salt Trading Corporation.

They also demanded with the local government to demand necessary quantity of fertilisers to the provincial and federal government under the Fertiliser Distribution Management Directive-2077.

Stakeholders also suggested the need of registering local cooperatives as fertiliser distributors for local and small-scale tea farmers, and to provide fertilisers through the provincial or federal government to tea companies/estates.

Tea farming is done in 10,500 hectares of land across Jhapa district. 

“Jhapa’s tea farmers require at least 1,500 metric tonnes of chemical fertilisers annually,” said Indra Adhikari, chief of the NTCD regional office in Birtamod.

According to Shiva Kumar Gupta, general secretary at Nepal Tea Planters Association, said that the farmers stopped receiving chemical fertilisers as necessary for the past three years.

“Despite repeated requests to all tiers of government in the past few years, the grievances seem to have fallen only on deaf ears,” said Binay Kumar Goyal, assistant secretary at the association.

The interaction programme also saw participation from Sagar Bista, current chief at the Agriculture Knowledge Centre and Narayan Tudu, current chief at Krishi Samagri Company.

The stakeholders and authorities have come to an agreement to seek support from higher authorities regarding the shortage of fertilisers.