Siliguri: The Tea Board of India on Tuesday introduced the
bulk SMS system for small tea growers of north Bengal and neighbouring
Bihar by which they would be able to know the minimum benchmark price of
green tealeaves of every month.
After the 234th meeting of the
board at its headquarters in Calcutta, the facility was inaugurated by
P.K. Bezbaruah, the board's chairman.
"Earlier, the Tea Board had
started fixing the MBP or the minimum selling price of green tealeaves
in each of tea producing districts of the country. The system was made
operational to ensure that the small tea growers are not being exploited
by the bought-leaf factories and they earn a decent profit over their
cost of production," said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the
Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers' Associations (Cista), who was
present at the inauguration of the SMS facility.
He
said even though the fixing of prices in each district was made
operational, many growers hardly had any information about the MBP.
"They used to sell produce at prices far lower than the MBP, without
bargaining with the buyers. That is why the tea board has now decided to
send bulk text messages to the cell phones of the growers every month
so that they can have information about the price," said Chakraborty.
The Telegraph
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