NILGIRIS: The farmers also hoisted black flags atop their houses as a mark of protest against low prices for green tea leaves. Small and marginal farmers have been cultivating tea in around 60,000 acres and more than one lakh people are dependent on it for their livelihood.

At present, the farmers get a drastically low price of Rs 10 to 15 per kg of green tea leaf. But, this price realisation is inadequate as farmers spend up to Rs 13 per kg in its production due to high cost of fertilizer, labour and transportation charges.

Therefore, the small farmers were facing severe loss in tea cultivation. They sought to fix a MSP of Rs 30 per kg to bail out the farmers from this crisis.

The farmers led by ‘Thumbur’ I Bojan, president of Hill District Small and Marginal Farmers Association said that they have petitioned the District Collector pressing upon this issue.

More than 12 lakh kg of green tea leaves were stagnated due to the strike by the growers.

Tea farming proves to be the backbone of the hill’s fragile economy as it provides employment for a majority of people by means of plucking tea leaves, transportation and in processing units.

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