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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The study was carried out to estimating the cost involved in value addition of green tea leaves in Sonitpur district of Assam. The primary data were collected from 100 small tea growers drawn from fifteen randomly selected villages of two randomly selected blocks of Sonitpur district of Assam by conducting interview of individual respondents who were classified into lower-small, medium-small and higher-small tea growers on the basis of their land holdings. The secondary data were collected from various published and unpublished sources. It was found that the highest value addition took place at Industry level, where the cost of value addition was Rs. 129.18 per kilogram, followed by wholesalers (Rs.35.92 per kilogram), retailers (Rs. 17.80 per kilogram) and green leaf collector (Rs. 3.20 per kilogram). The analysis also revealed that the net incomes of small tea growers and green leaf collectors were Rs. 2.63 and Rs. 1.86 per kilogram of green tea leaves respectively; and for processors, wholesalers and retailers these were Rs. 20.00, Rs. 2.50 and Rs. 4.00 per kilogram of made tea, respectively. It was observed that non-availability of workers in the peak plucking season, lower price of green tea leaves, non-settlement of land records of the small tea growers in the government offices and high price fluctuation of green tea leaves were the common problems faced by the small tea growers in the study area during production and marketing of green tea leaves.