Deep Roots

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Engaging and promoting family

tea farmers through cooperatives in Nepal

Rabin Rai, General Secretary, Central Tea Cooperative Federation, Nepal

epal is primarily an agricultural country. It has

a population of 30 million, 66 per cent of whom

are farmers, and more than 85 per cent of those

farmers live in rural areas with marginal land holdings.

The farmers usually engage members of their families as

inputs in cultivation.

Unfortunately, at present the young population is attracted

to work in foreign countries for more lucrative jobs and easy

income. Each day, more than 1,500 young people are going

to work abroad and finding less interest in agricultural activ-

ity in Nepal.

The Central Tea Cooperative Federation of Nepal (CTCF)

was established in 2010 and registered with the Ministry of

Agriculture and Cooperative Department to address farmers’

needs through tea cooperatives. CTCF is a member-based

national apex body of tea farmers’ cooperatives and their

district federations. Currently, 85 tea cooperatives and five

district tea cooperatives are members of CTCF. Some 18,000

small family farmers are involved in the tea sector in Nepal.

CTCF’s vision is focused on economic development

through tea cooperative promotion. It works on a central level

to improve the situation of the small tea farmers through the

cooperative movement. CTCF’s goal is to assist the develop-

ment of socioeconomic conditions for tea farmers through

cooperation. It operates in the districts of Ilam, Panchthar,

Dhankut, Therathum, Jhapa, Lalitpur, Udayapur, Taplejung,

Sankuwasava, Taplejung, Ramechap and Bhojpur with more

than 5,500 family tea farmers. The family members engage

in all the activities of tea farming and culture. Along with

tea, these families also engage in raising livestock, subsistence

farming and cultivating cereals.

The proclamation by the United Nations of 2014 as the

International Year of Family Farming creates a unique oppor-

tunity to develop the means to assure, in the medium and

long term, prosperous and sustainable family agriculture

development in rural areas on all continents, and especially

in developing countries.

Nepali agriculture is based on small family farms that are

mainly subsistence oriented and yet are not capable of feeding

the people and facilitating the economic development of the

country. But tea is a cash crop which ensures foreign exchange

for Nepal. More than 20,000 hectares of land are cultivated with

tea, out of which 85 per cent belongs to small family farmers.

Lack of infrastructure in rural Nepal is the most impor-

tant hindrance for development, and the most affected people

are the farmers. In addition to this, lack of access to finance

creates more difficulties. Farmers are facing different prob-

lems such as a lack of the technical knowledge needed to

increase productivity or improve processing and marketing.

Overall, they also don’t have the capacity to negotiate.

The Government’s tea policy of 2000 was inadequate to

address all the issues faced by tea farmers. In this scenario

CTCF was formed to address these issues and lobby with the

Government to solve the problems faced by the smallholder

tea family farmers of Nepal.

A mother and son plucking tea in the family tea fields

A rural village in Nepal: agriculture here is based on small family farms

Image: CTCF

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