Hi ,
I like to talk with you little bit of Ceylon Tea and background of tea industry and current situation of tea cultivation.
Tea industry start in Sri Lanka late 1852 British era. In Sri Lanka tea cultivation industry introduced by James Taylor. First tea land was Loolecondera . After that spread the tea cultivation as a commercial plantation in wet zone, Sri Lanka. Including up country, Southern region, Western and Sabaragamuwa region.
When this time tea industry includes large scale state and small-scale tea plantation. In southern and western province small scale tea cultivators were plant tea and becoming main commercial plantation and main export product in Sri Lanka.
When we consider the tea plantation, first remove all the trees and all the plants. Clean the land to prepare the cultivation. Excavate the trenches and drains for proper draining. And build the new retaining walls for protect the soil to prevent erode the land. Then plant the little tea pot. After planting the tea then plant the Glidiciria plant to get shelter and use as an organic fertilizer. Tea plants take at least eighteen months for grow the plant. After growing the plant, then we can get harvest once a week. For get the good quality and optimum harvest apply the chemical fertilizer, removing the weeds and proper maintenance is must.
Nowadays tea industry faces big difficulties. Some of them are scarcity of labor, high cost of labor, high living cost, scarcity of fertilizer and high cost of fertilizer. Therefore, maintenance cost of tea land is very high. Transportation, preparation and finishing procedure also get in trouble due to shortage of electricity and fuel in Sri Lanka nowadays.
Thank you........