Tea cultivation in Sri Lanka was started on commercial scale in the 1807s as a replacement for coffee following the devastation caused to it by coffee rust. The scale and speed of tea development was such that 150,000 ha had been planted by 1900, with steady increase to 243,000 ha by 1970. Thereafter, a gradual decline in tea extent has taken place to about 189,000 ha in 1999. The creation of tea estates by expatriates lead to Sri Lankans of setting up similar though generally smaller estates. Small holdings developed later, and more slowly initially. Small, family operated tea holding began to be developed in the inter-war period and gradually increased in number, particularly in the Low Country. Privately owned mini-estates were also developed which increased after the land reform of 1972 limiting personal ownership to 20 ha resulting into the breaking up of the many large privately owned tea estates. Since then the pace of small holder development has accelerated significantly from 38 percentof the area under tea in 1976 to over 83,000 ha, or about 44 percent of total extent in 1999. Over 15,000 ha has been planted in the last decade or so.
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