Sustainable Livelihoods for Small Tea Growers

AGENCY          :     European Commission
START DATE   :     01-04-2011
END DATE       :     30-06-2016
T E A M
NAME DESIGNATION EMAIL ID
Dayananda Pashi Project Officer dayananda.pashi@cec-in.org
Ratul Gogoi Project Officer ratul.gogoi@cec-in.org
Mungrei P Project Officer mungrie.p@cec-in.org
Kaustav Roy Sr. Project Officer kaustav.roy@cec-in.org
Ayananta Roy Project Officer ayananta.roy@cec-in.org
Sujit Hazarika Project Officer sujit.hazarika@cec-in.org
Pijush Goyary Project Officer pijush.goyary@cec-in.org
Minto Goswami Project Officer minto.goswami@cec-in.org
Shampa Das Project Officer shampa.das@cec-in.org
Ramdinmawia P. T. Project Officer ramdinamwia@cec-in.org
Joy Chakravorty Project Manager joy.c@cec-india.org

The Project, Sustainable Livelihoods for Small Tea Growers' is jointly by Centre for Education and Communication (CEC) along with Traidcraft Exchange UK (TX) and Bikash Bangladesh. In India, the project is being implemented in the states of Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram by CEC. In Bangladesh, the project is implemented in Tetulia region of Panchgarh district by Bikash Bangladesh and Traidcraft. 
 
The overall objective is to reduce poverty among small tea growers (STGs) in India and Bangladesh. The specific objective is to enable STGs and their representative bodies to realise fairer terms of trade.
 
The project is intended to reach 50,000 small tea growers (STGs), with focus on those below 5 acres of land. It is also expected to reach 10,000 tea workers (mainly women) who are employed by STGs. The project will engage with state level associations of small tea growers, bought leaf factories (BLFs), who purchase green leaves from the STGs, the Tea Boards of India and Bangladesh, technical and financial institutions (e.g. Tea Research Associations), local NSAs and the private sector.
 
This project will follow five key approaches: (i) creating a collective voice and identify for STGs setting up Primary Producer Societies (PPS) of STGs; (ii) capacity building and institution building for STG representative bodies by providing them trainings on technical, organisational, market issues; (iii) formation and strengthening of a national representative body of small tea growers, the Confederation of Small Tea Growers Associations in India (CISTA) for national and international advocacy; (iv) building sustainable supply chains for STGs in both countries, through transparent linkages with bought leaf factories and encouraging setting up their own factories wherever possible); and (v) ensuring sustainability through policy protection for STGs, collective bargaining, access to resources and technical support to enhance productivity and access to markets.
 
The methodology is based on the assumption that if a dispersed group is organised into collectives, trained in technical, negotiation and governance skills, they will be able to achieve confidence to deal more effectively with other players in the supply chain. They will also achieve economies of scale thereby reducing their cost of production, access to finance and resources, increase volumes of tea leaf to support better price negotiations, command the attention of BLFs and receive better returns through embedded services and fairer contracts, get involved in value addition, and livelihood diversification measures. This will increase their confidence; reduce vulnerability to natural shocks, leading to further empowerment to achieve policy change.
 
Technical Information
The European Union, represented by the European Commission ("the Contracting Authority") and  Centre for Education and Communication, Registration No. S13682 dated 20/07/1983 New Delhi with its office at Khirki Village, 173 A Malviya Nagar, New Delhi 110 017 India, ("the Beneficiary") signed the contract for implementation of the project 'Sustainable Livelihoods for Small Tea Growers' with contract no. DCI-NSA/2011/260-631 on March 28, 2011.
 
The project is implemented over a period of five years from 01 April 2011 to 31 March 2016.
 
The total budget of the Project is Euro 1.39 million with EU contribution of Euro 1.25 million (90%).