Tea growers in north-eastern India are experimenting with organic farming to improve quality and help the country, the world's largest tea producer, regain market share by promoting its organic tea as a 'health drink'. "Our clients in big cities and abroad have started avoiding those categories of tea where chemicals are used. This is a signal and something drastic has to be done," said Narendra Kumar Saharia, a tea exporter from the north-eastern state of Assam.
The use of chemical fertilisers to boost yields actually attracts pests to tea bushes, because some are attracted to their sweetness, growers said. This then requires increased use of pesticides to protect the leaves.
To break the cycle, organic farmers use earthworms, weeds, cow dung and urine, fish, milk and curd as manure and garlic, ginger, chillies, camphor and neem oil instead of pesticides.
India has been losing its share of the world tea market to countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Kenya, which offer better-quality teas at cheaper prices. Exports slipped to 167 million kg in 2004 from 173 million in 2003 and 201 million in the previous year.
Planters in Roing, surrounded by snow-capped peaks and rivers in the foothills of the Himalayas, have already started to change. New bushes are blossoming in Roing, as growers replaced 50-year-old plants, dating back to British rule, a few years ago.
And though it is not cheap to grow initially, organic tea can be sold at a premium.
"People are ready to pay the price but you don't have much in quantity to offer," said Kamal Chandra Das, a leading tea broker in Guwahati, Assam's main city, where the world's largest tea auction centre is located.
India's north-east has about 1,000 tea gardens and 700,000 workers, whose forefathers were brought from northern India by British rulers to work in plantations.
Workers have lived all their lives in the estates and depend on the owners for healthcare, children's education and food.
On organic farms, the health of labourers who suffered from respiratory and skin diseases from pesticides has improved.