US

The state of Assam has been one of the world’s largest tea producing regions for decades, yet recent trends demonstrate a gradual decline of the industry as a result of climate change.
Tea growers and industry experts alike have indicated that productivity has been steadily declining in Assam for the past decade. A recently published Economic Survey of Assam 2009-10 clearly demonstrates that the production of tea has declined over the last 10 years from 1,685 kg per hectare in 2001 to below 1,500 kg in 2010.

This worrying trend has been largely blamed on changing weather conditions, particularly erratic rain patterns in the last decade. The ideal weather conditions for quality tea crops is rainfall at night and warm weather condition during the day, but excessive annual rainfall has undermined production preventing sufficient sunlight and warmth from reaching the tea plants during the summer season. Moreover, winter rainfall has had an additional negative impact deteriorating the situation further.
The decline of tea production and the drop in exports threatens the lives and livelihoods of as many as 600,000 tea workers, who are employed by the Assam tea industry as leaf pickers, gardeners and factory workers.