Conclusions and Policy Suggestions

The ownership and production structures in tea plantations have innovated new narratives in recent decades in India. The emergence of Small Tea Growers (STGs) or Smallholders also exists in countries like India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi, etc. Now Plantations cannot be considered as a ‘lopsided development’ of regional economy which grows in isolation from its surrounding regions popularly termed as ‘enclave economy’. There seems to be an apparent contradiction between Plantations and Small-Scale tea gardens, it is so because plantations in general and tea plantations in particular have always been associated with large estates along with many fundamental characteristics. Most of the plantations emerged during the financial phase of capitalism and in India the first tea plantations began after 1840s. These plantations were started by the foreign entrepreneurs particularly British. The workforce was brought by the planters through forced migration mostly tribal from central India. These were capital-intensive and highly mechanized. Most of the plantations functioned like enclaves having minimum interaction with the immediate surrounding areas and communities. But smallholders in tea economy has shifted from its traditional characteristics and demands new interpretations of economic protection and policy inclusion from market failures.