CISTA urges CM to include small tea growers in farmers’ registry

Kolkata: The Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Association (CISTA) has written to chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, requesting the inclusion of small tea planters in the state’s farmers’ registry portal.

Neighboring Assam recently included small tea growers in its portal.CISTA president Bijoy Gopal Chakroborty stated in the letter that nearly 50,000 small tea growers in Bengal contribute around 70% of the state’s total tea production. Assam has officially included tea and plantation-class landholdings in its farmers’ registry portal. “This initiative has been a game-changer for small tea growers, bringing much-needed financial and developmental support through central farmer welfare schemes like Kisan Credit Card (KCC), PM-KISAN, and PMKSY, among others,” Chakroborty wrote.“In light of this, small tea growers of Bengal, spanning Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, and Cooch Behar, earnestly request you to consider a similar reorganization,” he added.