Climate change changes tea taste

Kathmandu, July 14: Nepal is prone to high risk of climate change effects. At a time when its geographical and ecological diversity is much celebrated asset, the effects of climate change has inflicted its specificities.

With various sectors witnessing the effects, the tea farmers and entrepreneurs have also said they experienced change in the taste of tea.

It was found after a sample survey conducted over a year in 14 districts where the tea is planted in Nepal.

Although 62 percent of the respondents during the survey said they were not aware of the effects of climate change, remaining respondents shared that the tea taste was changed; production declined; harvest time changed and tea shrubs grew shorter.

Such information was shared at a programme organized jointly by Central Bureau of Statics and National Tea and Coffee Development Board here Friday. It was revealed through a survey on commercial tea farming in Nepal 2018. The sample survey was conducted for the first time for a year during 2074BS.

Initially planted in eastern districts as Ilam, Jhapa, Panchthar, Dhankuta and Tehrathum, the team farm is extended to Dolakha, Nuwakot, Ramechhap, Bhojpur, Lalitpur districts in the later years.

There are 9,246 tea farmers and entrepreneurs in 14 districts of the country. Among them, 9127 have been involving in tea farming in an individual level while remaining 108 in institutional manner.

In 12,066 hectares of land, the farmers and entrepreneurs produced the green tea leaves weighing more than 100 metric tons over the survey period. Jhapa district topped the production, while Morang witnessed the least.

It was however informed that in the recent years, the number of tea farmers and entrepreneurs has growing in Nepal.  RSS