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By B. Sivaram
Tea is among the most labour-intensive of all the plantation crops. It has both an agricultural and a manufacturing dimension. According to well-established precepts, 60 per cent of the income from tea is agricultural, the balance being of an industrial nature. A brief account of both the agricultural and manufacturing activities follows, with particular reference to labour absorption, with the aim of facilitating an insight into the kind of productivity gains that are possible in an effort to improve the viability of this sector.
Harvesting. Commonly referred to as plucking in tea parlance, this activity is overwhelmingly labour-intensive, despite the tendency lately in some areas of the region to use shear harvesters during the heavy cropping period when labour is scarce. Plucking accounts for about 70 per cent of the workdays on estates and about 40 per cent of the total cost of production. The main factors that influence plucking are:
-- yield -- a higher level being attained by adopting better agricultural and management practices leading to enhanced plucking output;
-- plant density -- fields with less plants (about 8,600 per hectare in the "seedling" tea) having a lower plucking potential than those with more plants (about 12,500 per hectare in vegetatively propagated tea);
-- leaf variety -- the small-leaved China variety yielding less than the large-leaved "Assam" variety or the hybrid medium-leaved vegetatively propagated plants;
-- climate and topography -- higher elevation, steep areas, prolonged drought, etc. serving as constraints to plant growth, field productivity and, hence, plucking output;
-- age of plant -- older bushes yielding less than the new and replanted fields;
-- leaf standard -- the traditional "two leaves and a bud", while ensuring quality, does not generate as extensive a crop as does plucking the third leaf -- a practice that is now gaining ground -- or even coarse plucking, which substitutes quantity for quality;
-- plucking frequency -- for instance, a seven-day interval involving about 52 rounds a year resulting in a different level of yield -- and profitability -- than a five-day frequency involving about 73 rounds;
-- wage rates and incentives -- a properly designed incentive system, in particular, resulting in less leaf going unplucked and, at the same time, enhancing workers' earnings;
-- worker productivity -- embraces a wide spectrum of factors such as earnings, motivation and socio-economic influences.
Fertilizing. Given the required soil conditions, there is a high degree of correlation between field productivity and the application of inorganic fertilizer, as recommended by the four Tea Research Institutes that are in operation in the South Asian region. Apart from adhering to the recommended dosage -- roughly, 1 kg of nitrogen for every 10 kg of made tea -- the industry is now looking more closely at establishing precise linkages with fertilizer prices (subsidies for which have, by and large, been withdrawn) as well as the price of tea itself. Fertilizer application continues to be a manual operation, the workdays involved being almost the same for most fields, except that fields with very high productivity require additional rounds which, in turn, involve more labour, albeit to a small extent.
Weeding. Technical opinion now is that weeds in the tea fields are to be controlled, not eradicated. It is, therefore, a question of weed management with an eye on the cost-benefit line of the operation. Well-maintained and productive fields with good ground cover require little expenditure on chemicals and labour for weeding, whereas the substantial weeding costs incurred for fields with large vacant areas add little to productivity. Furthermore, manual weeding is slowly giving way to chemical weeding, so that what was a labour-intensive component of production is now no longer so, and the workforce involved in weeding is bound to shrink further in the future.
Pruning. The average life of a seedling tea plant is well over 50 years, with hybrid types having a life of around 40 years. Pruning is important for maintaining the tea bush in the right form and height for growing and plucking. Pruning is also necessary for the removal of branches that are decayed or dead as a result of drought, pests or diseases, thereby to ensure a clean and healthy plant. The rule of thumb is that the length of the pruning cycle is determined by the elevation of the estate (i.e. one year for every 300 m plus one more year). In practice, pruning is undertaken when the yield of a particular field starts to decline. Lately, however, certain economic considerations have also been incorporated, and the decline in the average cumulative net return has been suggested as being the appropriate yardstick for this purpose. There are several types of pruning -- rejuvenation pruning, clean pruning, lung pruning and so on, as well as the simple cut-across at an optimum height. Pruning is another manual operation but, unlike plucking, it is undertaken by men workers who are assigned a daily task, the number of bushes to be pruned varying with the type of pruning and the customary practice. Invariably, the task is completed well within the stipulated hours of work and, in that respect, much scope exists for rationalizing the workload and encouraging group activity. This is discussed below.
Other field operations. These include soil conservation measures, control of pests and diseases, and sundry activities. The labour requirements -- mostly men workers -- do not vary significantly with field productivity, being about 15 per cent of the total workdays absorbed on an average tea estate.
Manufacturing. About 4.5 kg of freshly plucked green leaf is required to manufacture 1 kg of black tea (finished product). In South Asia, factory expansion and modernization have not kept pace with the additional crop generated in the field, and it has been a matter of slowly upgrading the conventional technology. Between the two principal methods of manufacture -- orthodox and CTC (cut, tear and curl) -- the global demand for the latter has been on the rise because of its higher cuppage (about 1.6 times more cups than its orthodox counterpart) and greater acceptability in quick brewing tea bags. Producing countries in the region have, accordingly, affected a shift to CTC manufacture, with the entire Bangladesh product being of this variety. In India, the ratio of CTC to orthodox is now 85:15, largely reflecting a growing domestic market and shrinking exports to the Russian Federation. Sri Lanka has traditionally been an orthodox producer, but the island has lately affected a partial conversion to CTC manufacture, with 10 per cent of output in 1995 estimated to be of this variety. It is pertinent to note that, because of the relatively continuous process which CTC entails, the factory labour requirement is just about half that necessary for orthodox production. This trend of lower labour absorption in tea processing is expected to continue.
Overheads. By and large, tea production in South Asia is a large-scale enterprise. In Bangladesh, the entire industry is composed of large enterprises while, in India, barely 4 per cent of the tea plantation area is worked by smallholders who are almost wholly concentrated in the Nilgiri Hills of the southern belt. It is only in Sri Lanka that smallholders now account for 45 per cent of the tea-growing area, the remainder being administered by plantation management companies. The industry is therefore still estate oriented. In this situation, managements throughout the region are obliged to provide a wide array of welfare facilities to workers and their families, such as housing, medical care, education, sanitation and crèches. The workforce employed in the provision of welfare facilities represents about 5 per cent of total workdays at the estate level. Although it may be difficult to visualize a correlation between expenditure on welfare and worker productivity, an attempt is made below to establish such a linkage.
Capital field development involves three activities: new planting; replanting; and infilling of vacancies. The extent of new planting throughout the region is marginal, not only because of the shortage of land for expansion but also because of the unfavourable returns from tea. In India, the limited expansion is confined to the non-traditional areas and among smallholdings, where governmental support by way of loans and subsidies is forthcoming. In Sri Lanka, the land under tea plantation has in fact shrunk by 8,400 hectares, or 4 per cent, over the last ten years but this development must be viewed against the new planting in smallholdings, for which state subsidies exist. The position in Bangladesh also is that of marginal expansion, the increase being of the order of some 160 hectares annually. Although new planting is a labour-intensive operation which would certainly generate more employment, it would only add to global oversupply, and is thus not a viable approach.
The slow pace of replanting throughout the region is, however, striking. As against a targeted rate of 1.5 to 2 per cent per annum, it is only about 0.4 per cent in Bangladesh and India and 0.7 per cent in Sri Lanka. The activity, which involves uprooting of old bushes, rehabilitation of soil, planting of tea and maintenance of the young field till maturity, is overwhelmingly labour-intensive; about 70 per cent of the cost involved over the five-year period is on labour. From the point of view of individual managements, the reasons for the slow pace of replanting are economic -- high investment and negative returns. But replanting has to be seen in a wider national perspective. By enhancing field productivity, replanting also generates much higher employment per unit area than the old seedling fields. An element of state intervention and assistance to give a fillip to this activity will have a multi-dimensional impact on the long-term development of the industry. Meanwhile, industry efforts have been directed at the filling of vacancies with a view to increasing the plant density per unit area without suffering any loss of crop. To the producer, this is the most cost-effective field development option and it also has the advantage of absorbing underemployed workers, the labour component of infilling being, as in replanting, about 70 per cent of plant cost and maintenance.
Several yardsticks are available to the tea industry by which to judge production efficiency and its effect on reducing costs. The most important of these are noted below.
This is the quantity of green leaf harvested per workday, the objective being to increase it without detriment to quality. The average for the South Asian countries is reported in table 4, making allowances for the type of plucking, elevation and regional differences.
Table 4. Average field output in South Asian countries (kg of green leaf per day per worker)
| Bangladesh | 20 |
| India | |
| North | 24 |
| South | 25 |
| Sri Lanka | |
| State sector | 15 |
| Private estates/smallholdings | 24 |
| Sources: World Bank (for India and Sri Lanka -- circa 1992) and Bangladeshiyo Cha Sangsad (for Bangladesh -- circa 1993). | |
By comparison, the Kenyan average is 40 to 50 kg of green leaf per day per worker, although it must be added that this includes an element of assistance by family members, especially in the smallholdings, which adds to the individual plucker's efforts. According to a recent study of the African tea-producing countries, estates in Zimbabwe are registering a plucking productivity averaging as high as 68 kg.
This involves two aspects: first, the ratio of green leaf to made tea; and second, the worker output at the factory. In regard to the former, a combination of good quality leaf, careful handling and transport, and timely processing will help to reduce the conversion ratio to made tea. As noted above, 4.5:1 is the usual proportion but this can be improved to a certain extent through better manufacturing techniques. For example, a ratio of 4:1 is reported in Zimbabwe. With regard to worker output, the relative position of the South Asian countries is given in table 5.
Table 5. Average factory output in South Asian countries (kg of made tea per day per worker)
| Bangladesh | 18 |
| India | |
| North | 40 |
| South | 80 |
| Sri Lanka | |
| Up country (orthodox) | 45 |
| Low country (orthodox) | 35 |
| CTC (cut, tear and curl) | 80 |
| Source: Personal communication with industry leaders (circa 1993). | |
The relatively lower worker output in the factories in North India is attributed to the large number of workers employed for hand picking of stalk. The South Asian averages may be compared with that of Kenya, where modern CTC manufacturing facilities make it possible to attain a factory output of about 110 kg of made tea per day per worker.
It is well known that fertilizer is the most expensive and crucial field input for tea production. The optimization of fertilizer use implies not merely the efficient and timely application of the correct dosage, but also the establishment of good soil and good bush management. Among tea-producing countries, Kenya has the highest fertilizer productivity; in the estate sector, a ratio of 20 kg of made tea for every kilogram of nitrogen is reported. By and large, the proportion in South Asia is about half that.
Technical progress, in the form of high-yielding and disease-resistant plants, and the enhancement of research development facilities, particularly through regional cooperation at the SAARC level, are significant factors in bringing about both improved productivity and enhanced quality, the latter also leading to better prices.
In the debate on productivity, it is often overlooked that improvements in managerial productivity are just as important as improvements in labour productivity. With overheads in the tea companies accounting for about 20 per cent of the total cost of production, the cost-effectiveness of management needs to be assessed de novo. This assessment assumes added relevance in a situation where smallholders, who do not incur overheads and supervisory charges, have a clear cost advantage over the traditional plantation system.
The main parameters determining the productivity of a tea estate, particularly in respect of its day-to-day operations, are the levels of labour utilization and the labour per unit area appropriate to the different levels of yield. These requirements are indicated in table 6 and in figures 1 and 2.
Table 6. Workdays and labour per hectare: Requirements for different levels of yield
| Activity | Yield (kg per hectare) | ||||||||
| 1 000 | 1 250 | 1 500 | 1 750 | 2 000 | 2 250 | 2 500 | 2 750 | 3 000 | |
| Plucking | |||||||||
| Workdays | 362 | 418 | 466 | 507 | 512 | 515 | 518 | 520 | 522 |
| Labour per hectare | 1.51 | 1.74 | 1.94 | 2.11 | 2.13 | 2.14 | 2.15 | 2.17 | 2.18 |
| Other field | |||||||||
| Workdays | 125 | 120 | 115 | 115 | 110 | 110 | 105 | 105 | 100 |
| Labour per hectare | 0.52 | 0.50 | 0.48 | 0.48 | 0.46 | 0.46 | 0.44 | 0.44 | 0.42 |
| Manufacture | |||||||||
| Workdays | 26 | 31 | 36 | 41 | 47 | 52 | 58 | 63 | 69 |
| Labour per hectare | 0.11 | 0.13 | 0.15 | 0.17 | 0.20 | 0.22 | 0.24 | 0.25 | 0.28 |
| Overheads | |||||||||
| Workdays | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 |
| Labour per hectare | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 | 0.17 |
| Total | |||||||||
| Workdays | 553 | 609 | 657 | 703 | 709 | 717 | 721 | 728 | 731 |
| Labour per hectare | 2.30 | 2.54 | 2.74 | 2.93 | 2.95 | 2.99 | 3.00 | 3.03 | 3.04 |
As an example, the workdays required for an estate with a yield of, say, 1,500 kg per hectare is 657, with an average of 2.74 workers per hectare. In practice, however, the latter parameter varies from country to country and from district to district within the same country, the average for India being 2.5 and for Bangladesh 2. In Sri Lanka, there is a marked variation between estates and smallholdings. In estates, there are as many as 3 to 3.5 workers per hectare, whereas in smallholdings there are said to be as few as about 1.5, although family employment has also to be taken into account to reflect the true position. In the East African estate sector, the average number of workers per hectare is reported to be 2, despite the higher yield.
Three aspects may be noted. First, workforce requirements are based on the currently low productivity levels for existing tasks. More cost-effective norms have to be established. When that happens and labour productivity improves, there will be savings on labour which, in turn, will have a salutary effect on the cost of production. Second, the figures represent the average, not the maximum, and especially in respect of plucking, will require an upward revision for the heavy cropping period. This can be calculated taking into account the yield difference between average and peak months. Third, where there is a situation of disguised unemployment, the use of surplus workers in productive field development, to undertake such tasks as replanting or infilling, would help to improve long-term viability of the plantation.
While the pattern of labour deployment suggested above is only in the nature of a guideline, the increasing adoption of computer technology is allowing for greater sophistication in labour deployment. Some tea companies in the region have already made commendable progress, particularly in respect of programming the plucking schedule. The approach is to decentralize plucking, with each small gang daily harvesting a couple of fields under the control of a supervisor. The basic unit of operation is a block, and several blocks form a sector (about one hectare). By using the concept of leaf expansion time (see below), it is possible to obtain the computer inputs needed to estimate the green leaf and plucking averages for each month and hence to determine field plucking requirements. Depending on the projected cropping pattern, the plucking interval can also be planned in relation to the manpower availability. If the situation is such that it would be difficult to cope with the harvest, a correction can be put into motion ab initio by bringing the required area under shear plucking. In the opposite situation, the management decision would be to undertake selective plucking and to deploy labour on other field activities. Industry leaders expect that supervisory staff will, in due course, be able to control all field inputs using this type of fine tuning.
