Development of a Package on Foliar Feeding for the Tea Fields under extensive Shear and Machine Harvesting

摘要

South Indian tea industry is facing acute shortage of labour especially for harvesting, followed by a steep increase in worker wages and high cost of inputs (Mohan Kumar et al., 2008). In this context, mechanization of harvesting has become necessaryto overcome these problems to reduce the cost of production. Operational efficiency of various models of one man and two men operated machines were evaluated by the UPASI Tea Research Institute and found to be useful to increase the productivity of labour thereby reducing the requirement of number of workers per unit area for harvesting as well as reduction in cost of production. The UPASI TRF recommends use of two men operated machines to harvest the clonal fields planted on gentle slopes of less than15% while one man operated machines can be used up to 30% slopes and hand operated shears can be used for very steep terrains of more than 30% gradient (Victor J Ilango et ah, 2001).