Tea and Coffee Cultivation in India

The following points highlight the two important beverages cultivated in India. The beverages are: 1. Tea Plant 2. Coffee Plant.

Beverage # 1. Tea Plant (Camelia Sinensis Linn):

Tea plant are evergreen shrubs or short trees, branches glabrous. Leaves of tea plants are simple, alternate, exstipulate; elliptic oblong, serrate, acute at both ends or cuspidate acuminate at apex, silky puberulous beneath when young, 10-20 cm. long 3-7 cm. broad.

Flowers solitary, axillary, often in a cluster of 2-4 bisexual, about 3 cm in diam, bracteate; bracts 2-3, small. Sepals 5-6, unequal, orbicular, glabrous, with membranous ciliate margin. Petals white, 5-6, broadly obovate, slightly coherent at base. Stamens many in several whorls, 5-12 of the inner most whorl free, others unite to form a monadelphous ring, adnate to the base of the petals.

Ovary superior, 3-5-celled with 4-5 pendulous ovules in each cell, styles 3-5, united up to 2/3rd of their length. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, trigonous, with leathery pericarp. Seeds 1-2 in each cell of the fruit, 1.5-2 cm. in diam., globose or obtusely angled, pale brown and smooth.

As a beverage tea was known to the people of China from ancient times and by the 5th century A.D. it was very popular. It is not known when cultivation started on a commercial scale but it is now grown in many tropical and subtropical countries of the world.

In India tea is cultivated in the districts of Dehra Dun, Kangra and Kumaun of U.P Darjeeling and Jalpaigooree of West Bengal, Brahmaputra — valley and Surma — valley of Assam and in Ranchi area of Chota Nagpur. In southern India’ it is grown Malabar, Coimbatore, Nilgiris and hills of Kerala. In Darjeeling district tea is cultivated from the Duars to an elevation of about 2000 mtr.

Tea prefers a wet and warm climate. The optimum condition is considered to be a narrow range of temperate variation, generous rainfall throughout the year, absence of strong dry wind and temperature well above freezing point.

Rainfall of 150 cm. to 370 cm. per year is well — suited for tea growing but in S. India annual rainfall as high as 750 cm. appears to have no harmful effect on tea plant provided the soil is well drained. Water-logging in the soil is detrimental. Acid soil free from Calcium carbonate or reactive Calcium is best suited for tea growing. As a manure Ammonium sulphate is used at the rate of 20 kg. per acre.

Tea plant is shade loving. Partial shade is therefore provided to the bushes in a plantation by planting medium sized trees at intervals, preferably at distances of 16-17 mtr. The trees preferred for this purpose are: Dalbergia assamica Roxb; Derris robusta Benth; Leucena glauca Benth, Gliricidia maculata H.B.K., Grevillia robusta A. Cunn., and species of Acacia, Erythrina and Albizzia.

Regular pruning is done to induce vigorous vegetative growth and to keep the bushes at a suitable height for easy plucking of the leaves. Pruning starts mwhen the plants are two and a half years old. It is done annually or biennially in northern India but at an interval of 2-3 years in S. India. Heavy pruning is necessary when the bush is high.

Tea plants are propagated from seeds and also from root-cuttings. The viability of tea seeds is poor and the seeds should be sown soon after collection. In nurseries seeds are sown in beds 10-20 cm. apart and are properly shaded.

When about 30 cm. high the seedlings are transplanted. On flat land and on gentle slopes seedlings are planted 1, 5 mtr apart and on terraces of the hills at a distance of 1 mtr from each other.

The holes dug for receiving the seedlings are partly filled with well-rotted cattle dung and compost, and then seedlings are planted with a large lump of undistur6ed soil attached round the roots. In the case of root cuttings, these are allowed to root under bamboo shade or ferns.

Tanin content is highest in the apical bud and the 1st leaf. The bud and 2 leaves just beneath are therefore plucked and the plucking is done at an interval of one week. Tea is obtained from another species which is much cultivated in E. India and this is Camelia Kissi Wall. This does not have a very good flavour but gives a good liquor.

As a beverage tea is used in 4 forms viz. — Black tea. Green tea, Oolong tea and Brick tea. Drinking of black tea is popular in almost all countries and green tea is popular in central Asia and to some extent in other countries. Oolong tea is a semi-fermented product manufactured in Formosa and outside Formosa used in some parts of America. Brick tea is liked by the people of Mongolia and Tibet.

Manufacture of Black tea consist of 4 stages, viz. Withering, Rolling, Fermenting and Drying or Firing. The process of withering is to spread out the collected leaves from the garden on racks and shelves of the withering room.

They are left there for partial drying until the leaves are soft and flaccid. This is done by allowing natural breeze to pass through the room or by blowing warm wind with the help of power driven fan.

In the rolling process the flaccid leaves are passed on to rollers where the leaves are twisted. The process is repeated for 1st, 2nd and 3rd rolling. For fermentation the rolled or twisted leaves are spread on platforms, 3 – 10 cm. thick and left there for 2-6 hrs. in an atmosphere of high humidity and low temperature.

Then for firing or drying hot air- current is passed over the leaves for 30 – 40 mts. The dried material contains 3-5% of moisture. The material is then packed in aluminium-lined packing cases. In the preparation of green tea the plucked leaves are first heat-treated.

This consists of pan-firing or steaming for a few minutes not to show any sign of scorching or reddening. The heat- treated leaves are then rolled and dried. In this preparation withering and fermentation is omitted. Oolong tea is manufactured in Taiwan and is a semi-fermented product. It has a special flavour peculiar to its own.

In preparing brick tea the plucked leaves are steamed over a boiler and when flaccid and soft passed in heavy moulds under hydraulic pressure into bricks.

In India tea gardens cover a total area of about 900,000 acre and the annual production is about 28900000 kg. about half of which is exported outside. Camelia Kissi Wall is another species grown in Assam on a small scale and is used as a substitute for C. sinensis.

Beverage # 2. Coffee Plant (Coffea Arabica Linn):

Coffee plants are shrub or small tree; branches compressed. Leaves are simple, opposite, with broad interpetiolar stipules. Flowers in axillary clusters, hermaphrodite, regular, epigynous, white and fragrant; bracteate. Calyx tubular, 4 – toothed, persistent.

Corolla tubular below; lobes 4-5, contorted. Stamens 4-5, with narrow sessile anther, inserted on the corolla tube. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; ovule solitary in each cell, pendulous; style stout with large capitate stigma.

Fruit a drupe with 2 pyrenes, scarlet when ripe. Seeds (known as coffee-beans) usually 2, enclosed in a common husk like membrane with horny endosperm, short and curved embryo and thin cordate cotyledons.

C. arabica is native of Abyssinia and is grown in many tropical countries. In India it is cultivated in the Western Ghats in Mysore and Kerala and in small scale in Chotanagpur. The total area under coffee plantation in India is about 197800 acre with an annual production of beans of about 15145 tons.

C. arabica may attain a height of about 10 m. if not pruned but is usually pruned down to m. It prefers a rich well drained friable loamy soil with pH value of 6.0 – 6.5. Areas exposed to strong wind are not suited for good growth.

Partial shade is beneficial to coffee plants. To start a plantation a virgin forest is cleared on a hill-slope. Pits are dug 45-60 cm. deep, 30-45 cm. wide and 2-3 mtrs. apart. Seedlings or grafts are planted in the pits during July-September. In India overhead shade trees are provided but in other countries the young plants are left exposed to direct sun.

Seedlings are raised in specially prepared seed beds and transplanted to nurseries when 7-8 cm. tall. In seed-beds seeds are sown in Jan. to March, covered with earth about 1 cm. thick and then covered with moss or grass and watered daily.

The seeds germinate in 4-8 week’s-time and the moss — or grass covering is removed after the germination of seeds. Light overhead shade is provided. In nurseries small seedlings are often transplanted in baskets from the seed beds.

After about a year in July-Sept, the .seedlings are transplanted to pits in the plantations. If they are in baskets the seedlings are not removed from them and the baskets are placed in the pits with the seedlings. Besides planting shade trees in the plantations cover crops are grown to cover the ground between the rows and keep down the weeds. Weeding is necessary till the coffee-plants form small bushes.

Proper arrangement for good drainage is always made in a plantation. Cattle dung, oil cake and bone-meal are used as manure at early stages, later replaced by chemical manuring. Topping and pruning is regularly done when the plants are more than 1/2 mtr. tall and all unnecessary suckers are removed.

Plants start producing the berries when 3 years old and go on bearing for 30-50 years. Berries ripen in Oct-Nov. and are plucked when properly ripe. Unripe berries give defective beans (i.e. seeds) and overripe berries are difficult to pulp. Berries are sun- dried for 2-3 weeks and the covering is removed by hulling.

They are then cured in a curing shed. Wet beans are pulped, fermented, washed and dried. The beans are then put in a peeler and the parchment cover and silver skin are removed. They are then roasted, powdered and packed for marketing. For outside trade the beans usually exported as such and the powder only in a small quantity.

The seeds if left in warm damp place for some time develop a change in flavour and taste and coffee with such flavour and taste is liked by some people. To prepare such special type of coffee the beans are spread evenly on the floor or platforms of a room through which monsoon air is permitted to pass.

After 2 weeks the seeds are turned and left as such for another week. These are then packed in bags and the bags are also left in the floor or platform in such a manner that the damp air current can freely pass through them.

After a few days the bags are packed for export. This process is called monsooning of the beans. The beans are also used in manufacturing a plastic material, known as caffelite. The leaves of coffee are also used as beverage in Malaya.

Coffee is obtained from the seeds of a few other species of COFFEA viz. C. liberica Bull exHiern, C. robusta Lind., C. stenophylla G. Don, etc. C. robusta is a native of Congo in Africa and grows in varying conditions of soil and climate. It is much cultivated in Java and Sri Lanka. This has been introduced into India and has been successfully established in Kerala.