Tea areas in Bangladesh are located in two divergent ecological zones, namely (i) Sylhet zone in the Surma valley, and (ii) Chittagong zone in the Halda valley. The Surma valley are traditionally sub-divided into six circle , namely, No- rth Sylhet, Juri, Lungla, Mono-doloi, Balisera and Luskerpur, which have 131 tea estates , while there are 21 estates in the Halda valley in Chittagong and 1 estate in Bramanbaria. Total grant area of all tea gardens is allotted to be 113,603ha, of which 39.8% area is used for tea plantation and about 38% of the land comprising bamboo thickets, khets, factory premises, roads and uncultivable waste, etc. which are not suitable for tea cultivation. The remaining 22% comprises forests (17%) and fallow land (5%).
Table – 1: Aggregated Area under Tea Gardens of Bangladesh.
|
| (Hectare) | (%) |
| Area under tea | 45166 | 39.8 |
| Bamboo | 6811 | 6.0 |
| Forests | 19700 | 17.3 |
| Khets | 12041 | 10.6 |
| Fallow | 6107 | 5.4 |
| Uncultivable waste | 4622 | 4.1 |
| Factory premises, etc | 9578 | 8.4 |
| Other uses | 9578 | 8.4 |
|
| Total 113,603 | 100.00 |
Management and Ownership:
Tea gardens are under diverse management ownership.26 tea estates are managed by starling companies consisting Messrs James Finlay and Company, Duncan and brothers ltd 17 estates are run by the national tea Co. (NTC) which is a public limited company where the government of Bangladesh and the government owned institutions have a majority of shares. There are 106 tea estates which are proprietary and managed by the ministry of commerce. These gardens are heterogeneously distributed in 6 valley circles of greater Sylhet and Chittagong having two divergent tea zones. All estates owned by the sterling companies are concentrated in Sylhet, while 87 proprietary tea estates are located in Sylhet and 18 in Chittagong 1 in Comilla zone. (Choudhury, 1974).
Growth:
Tea estates are grouped into 4 classes, viz. A, B, C, U in accordance with the productive level. There are 68 estates belonging to A class which produce more than 180,000 kg of tea annually, 23 estates to B- class producing 108,000 kg to less than 180,0000 kg; 26 estates to C-class producing 27000 kg to less than 108,000 kg., while 36 estates belonging to U-class (unclassified) which produce annually less than 27000 kg. All estates belonging to C and U class are, however, less developed and faced with various constraints of productivity and finance.( Anon, 1979.).
