Efforts to revive tea gardens in India have received a boost following the launch of the first round of special purpose tea fund loans to Assam on Monday.

With a view to speed up replanting and rejuvenation of tea gardens to enhance their productivity, a loan agreement signing ceremony for the first lot of 82 applicants between the tea board and 24 tea companies was held here.

This round involves replantation and rejuvenation of 1,925 hectares of tea with a loan component of Rs 48 crore (Rs 480 million). At the function, minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh said though it was an all-India scheme, Assam accounts for 50 per cent of the 1,000 gardens across the country which would qualify for the SPTF loans.

He said the scheme would be implemented from the current fiscal year till the end of the 11th Plan with a funding pattern of 25 per cent subsidy, 25 per cent promoters' contribution and the balance 50 per cent by way of loans from the banks.

He said the maximum capital to be raised from the banking sector would be around Rs 1,080 crore (Rs 10.8 billion) for which the required capital infusion from the government at 12 per cent capital would be Rs 130 crore (Rs 1.3 billion).

The minister said the total corpus under SPTF was Rs 4,760 crore (Rs 47.6 billion), spread over 15 years. What has been done in the last 30 years by way of rejuvenation programme, the government is going to do five times more than that amount in the next 15 years.

At the end of the 15-year period, the average productivity would go up from 1.7 tonnes to 2.2-2.3 tonnes per hectare.

Addressing the gathering, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahulwalia said the industry should beef up quality and marketing efforts by making due use of the facilities.

Later, Ramesh dispelled the doubt that SPT loans were not for small growers. He said since one of the conditions was that the bushes should be 50 years old, many of the small growers would not be eligible for the SPTF. He said the government was helping small tea growers through self-help groups under which 50 per cent cost of transporting tea leaves from growers to bought-leaf factories would be borne by the tea board.

He urged the Assam small tea growers to get themselves registered with the tea board. He said the government would help small tea processing factories.

He said the government would make efforts to register Assam orthodox tea for geographical indication.

Ramesh said the SPTF would be extended to other commercial crops covering coffee, cardamom, pepper, coconut, rubber and cashew in another four or five months.