Joydeep Phukan, secretary, Tea Research Association (TRA), talks to Tradebriefs on the state of affairs today at the oldest tea research institute on the world!
Tocklai Tea Research Institute, named after the river Tocklai in Assam, on whose banks it was set up in 1911, is the oldest tea research institute in the world. The most premier institute of its kind, it has delivered yeomen’s service to the tea industry in India, helping to triple Assam’s tea output in the last half century. With cutting-edge research on best practices for tea cultivation and manufacturing, Tocklai has been instrumental in establishing Assam teas as the most premium in its category, worldwide. In fact, the popular Irish Breakfast and English Breakfast tea blends are made using black tea from Assam. Today, it is indeed sad to know that due to a lack of funding from the Central government, scientists from this institute have not received their dues. The arrears amount to about Rs 11 core, to be paid as benefits to those who are now retired after years of service at Tocklai. Joydeep Phukan, secretary, Tea Research Association (TRA), talks to Tradebriefs on the state of affairs today at this august institution, new products in the pipeline, tea tourism, and the road ahead. Excerpts
I believe, some scientists, recently retired from Tocklai, have not received their pensions. Is this correct?
Yes, due to extreme fund crunch, we have not been able to pay the retiral dues of gratuity and leave encashment to scientists and employees who have retired. Over and above this, we have not been able to pay the statutory dues due to the extreme fund shortage.
Please say if meeting salary expenses is also a problem.
Yes, meeting salary expenses is a big problem as we have not received the funds from Tea Board of India. As approved, Tea Board of India is supposed to pay 49% on expenditure such as salaries, PF, gratuity, medical and training and not receiving the funds for recurring expenses like salary, aggravates the problem. The members from the tea industry have increased their subscription by 100% over three years in 2016, and TRA is also trying to generate its own income substantially. However, increasing self- generation of income to replace the government funding will take some time. And to retain good scientific talent, we need to implement the 7th Pay Commission scales which will further put the burden on us. Today, the total arrears is about Rs 11 crore. For the last two years, we have been receiving about Rs 3.5 crore whereas we are supposed to get Rs 9 crore.
I believe certain departments like soil testing is pretty much non-functional at this point. Is this right? If so, why? And what is the status of other departments?
This is not true. The soil testing department workload for soil tests is at its peak for the last few months, analysing soil samples for the tea estates. The soil department of TRA Tocklai, have been working well in spite of severe fund challenges. On the contrary, I would like to inform that our soil scientists have developed a contamination index named as Tea Research Association Heavy Metal Contamination Index (TRAHMCI) for tea-growing soils which is published in a reputed peer-reviewed journal. All other departments are working well and Tocklai has successfully released one of the highest quality seed stock for Darjeeling last year called TS560. Two new clones for the plains are ready for release which are from Clone 662 and 652. The entomology department at Tocklai which undertook a prestigious project funded by Unilever on a non-chemical approach to pest management in tea, was highly appreciated by the senior Unilever officials recently.
What is the expenditure on research and development (R&D) in other countries?
In general, the R&D expenses on tea for various countries are quite good. Sri Lanka produces about 338 million kg and the government there allocates about Rs 15-20 crore to the Tea Research Institute (TRI) Sri Lanka, towards R&D. This amount is provided entirely by the government. Kenya produces about 445 million kg and the government there provides the Tea Research Foundation (TRF) Kenya also with Rs 15-20 crore. China produces about 2,400 million kg and while the expenditure on R&D is not available for China, the Chinese government entirely funds the R&D efforts of the Tea Research Institute (TRI), affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences (CAAS).
In comparison, the total production of India for 2017 was 1278.83 million kgs. However, I cannot give you the R&D allocation because the same has not been allocated yet! It is under consideration under the MTF (Medium Term Framework), since we do not have a Planning Commission after it was discontinued, after the 12th Plan. However, the R&D expenditure in the tea industry is split into mainly three organisations such as TRA Tocklai (which handles 75% of the Indian production and R&D interest in North India, covering nine states); UPASI TRF (which handles 25% of Indian production R&D interest covering three states); and DTRDC which looks after R&D in Darjeeling, over and above TRA. Research projects are also given to various universities and organisations such as IIT Kharagpur, etc. Let us wait and see what the allocation will be.
Has there been an increase in your expenses?
The increase in expenditure for Tocklai is mainly due to increase in salary expenses. TRA has been following the CSIR scale from 1964 and increase in CSIR scales have a direct impact on the overall expenditure of the organization. Implementation of pay commission scales and regular dearness allowance (DA) increases the expenses on salaries and related items substantially. That being said, I don't think that our expenses have gone up much over the last three-four years. This is because despite the increase in pay scales, we have less employees today as compared to three-four years back. We have increased our industry subscription by 100% but disbursement of government funding has declined by 80%. Expenses on other items are considerably less compared to other similar organizations.
What about generating your own revenue?
Tocklai has been trying to increase its revenue through commercialization of technologies and services. From a negligible amount, around 14% of the total budget of TRA is met from internal resource generation from lab tests and sale of items. We plan to enhance bio formulation sale in a big way in the coming months at Tocklai. However, in the long run, I don't see that we should be dependent on government funding. After all, Tocklai is an industry initiative and the government came in to handhold it from only from 1964 onward. This is why I have always been saying to the industry that this is your baby and you have to take care of it. Ultimately, the benefits are accruing to you only, and if people are not working, you should get involved and correct it. Only depending upon the government is also not right because this is nothing but a subsidy. However, until such time that we are able to commercialize our operations in a bigger way, it is necessary to support such an organization, and there are many things we are doing to achieve such a situation. If we are given three-four years time, since we are only dealing with tea and not any other crop, that would help.
Could you provide some details about what you plan to do for self-generation of income?
What we are trying to do is increase our income from different sources. One is we have increased our subscription by 100%. Second, we are trying to have more and more laboratories for testing. Gradually, this has shown results. In another three-four years, we should be able to make up the difference. Third, we now plan to capitalise on the by-products of tea. For instance, we can sell the tea extract, and we can help the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries who would like to have such products. Those things are very high value. We are also trying to sell the products directly, both to companies and to countries overseas. Since some some people are not tea drinkers and may prefer coffee, they may still want to get the health benefits benefits of tea, similar to non-vegetarians who may want to take the benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids taken from salmon or cod fish. China has gone ahead quite a lot on such products.
I believe you are also coming out with wine tea.
Yes, we have a very good research director here who is trying to see that all avenues are explored.
Ultimately, tea is not just a product. For those in the industry, it is a way of life. Why don't you think of tea tourism, making use of the beautiful colonial-style bungalows and the worldwide interest in tea?
Yes, we are thinking of getting into a bigger role. The first is with respect to training for the small and medium tea growers because they constitute nearly 50% of the total production of India. However, technically, the guidance for them is not available as there is nothing structured . What we are thinking is we will hand-hold them in a more structured way. The government of Assam has sanctioned a sum of Rs 17 crore for us for the purpose to set up an R&D centre at Tocklai. This was announced by the Chief Minister very recently. Of course, this was a budgetary announcement but now he has also said it in public and we expect the money will be disbursed in the next 15-2o days. We have given all the proposals and everything has been done.
Second, we are also trying to have a one-stop shop for tea tourism. Suppose, from Mumbai, you want to come to Assam and experience the tea world but you are hard-pressed for time and cannot go and visit all the plantations that you would like to, we are saying that instead of landing at Guwahati, you can take a flight also to Jorhat. Tocklai is just 15-20 minutes drive away and we have a very beautiful guest house there. There are also the bungalows that you just said. Tocklai has two tea estates – one is 140 ha and the other is 40 ha. Like in Darjeeling, visitors go out to see the sunrise, we can also make it experiential where tourists who come here can go and pluck their own leaf. We have a miniature factory as well as a bigger factory. Tourists can produce their own batch of teas, maybe visit Jorhat town as well. Ideally, we would like to keep our guests engaged with interesting activities like organising visits to Sibsagar, an old town of immense historical importance with almost century-old monuments, etc. The ever-popular Kaziranga wildlife resort is not too far away either. We have submitted a concept proposal and our local MLA here has more or less approved it. In the last state budget also, they have announced that Tocklai will be made into a hub of tea tourism.
- TradeBriefs Bureau -