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UNDP project for small sector tea processing units in Nilgiris

Kolkata: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have approved a $ 2 million project for the small sector tea processing units in South India. The four-year project, beginning from October 2007, aims at improving the energy efficiency of these units, most of which use firewood as fuel. The project aims at reducing emission of green house gases and cutting the costs of tea manufacturing, while preserving the Niligiri biosphere reserve.

Major technical institutes such as Anna University, PSG College of Engineering, Coimbatore, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, are to be associated with this project. Their R&D activities would be coordinated by an NGO — Technology Innovation Design Endeavour.

Talking to The Hindu, Tea Board executive director R.D. Nazeem, who would be the national project director, said that while the GEF would contribute $ 1 million, the Tea Board and the various stakeholders would contribute the rest. The Tea Board has committed 25 per cent of the funds for all those factories which would make use of the scheme to install energy-efficient technologies that were being developed by the institutes. These would be manufactured by major equipment manufacturers.

The south, which produces about 192 million kg annually (accounting for roughly 20 per cent of India’s production) gets its tea from the estates in Coimbatore and Niligiri district in Tamil Nadu and Idukki and Wayanad district in Kerala. About 40 per cent of this output comes from bought-leaf tea factories which buy tea from small growers and process it.

The Niligris region, with 62,000 small growers, has the world’s second highest concentration of small growers after Kenya. These growers supply the tea to the bought leaf factories in the region, which is why the Niligiris have been chosen for implementing the project, according to Mr Nazeem.

These units burn half a unit of electricity and 1.5 kg of firewood to make one kg of tea. “In Nilgiris, 100 million units of electricity and three lakh tonnes of firewood are used annually releasing 5.4 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. This project aims at cutting down the gas emission by 20 per cent”, Mr. Nazeem said.

This will be done by introducing equipment and technology which cuts down on the energy needs — like fuel-efficient air heaters and blowers. Initially 30 factories would be covered under this programme. He said that most of the investments made in these modified equipment can be recovered in six months through savings in electricity and cost of firewood, which is transported from the plains by 9,000 trucks annually (there is savings in diesel and further reduction in gas emission)

A unique component of this project is an insurance cover which would be provided for the machinery which in turn would give a performance-guarantee. While lauding the initiative, industry experts said that once the benefits are felt factories would get motivated to switch to the new energy-saving equipment.

It may be mentioned that there has been hardly any technological improvement in the over 100 year old tea sector and most factories use machineries designed decades back. The 11th plan has allocated generous funds for R&D and the Tea Board has tied up with the IIT Kharagpur to design modern technologies that bring savings in costs, time and space for this agro-industry.

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