Project Narrative

The dense tea monoculture in Darjeeling has led to a declining tea production in the last decade as plantations have cleared hillsides of trees to maximize the acreage of tea bushes, causing erosion and a more rapid degradation of the rich soil that gives the tea its unique flavor. Planting fruit trees in these agricultural parcels optimized the tea production by creating biodynamic ecosystems, while helping producers to increase and diversify their incomes. CONTEXT India exported 225.76 million kg of tea in 2013-14. India is the world’s second-biggest tea producer. Among the teas grown in India, Darjeeling tea offers distinctive characteristics of quality and flavor, and also a strong reputation for more than a century. But the dense tea monoculture in Darjeeling has led to a declining tea production in the last decade as plantations have cleared hillsides of trees to maximize the acreage of tea bushes, causing erosion and a more rapid soil degradation.In the battle to cut costs, the fertility of the naturally thin soil has further been reduced by overuse of chemicals or washed away by landslides. Deforestation for tea is destroying the habitat of iconic local species, like the jaguar, and degrades the ecosystem on which tea production depends.