The government has prepared a roadmap for the tea sector involving Tk 976 crore aiming to boost production, create 30,000 additional permanent jobs and improve the standards of living of workers.

The draft plan, which has been prepared by the commerce ministry, will soon be presented to the high authorities of the government for approval. 

Of the sum, Tk 834 crore will be mobilised as loans and the remainder will be grants. The roadmap will be implemented from 2016 to 2030.

Funds may come from the government's own coffers, according to the draft proposal.

In such a scenario, loans can be given from Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank at bank rates or subsidised interest rate.

Funds may also come from development partners such as the European Commission, the DFID, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the United Nations Development Programme, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Alternatively, funds can be raised both from the government and development partners, according to the draft.

There are 162 tea gardens in Bangladesh covering 1.14 hectares of land. Of the gardens, 149 are identified as developing and 13 as sick. At present, tea is grown over 59,018 hectares of land.

Under the short-term plans, the government intends to expand tea cultivation on 2,000 hectares out of 5,868 hectares of land newly available for farming.

Of 10,000 hectares of old or unprofitable tea-growing areas, aged plants on 3,850 hectares would be replaced with new saplings.

The draft said there are well-furnished factories in 96 gardens. The machinery of 18 factories is of low-quality. Some 48 gardens do not have any factory.

The gardens that do not have modern factories will have to be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment in order to produce high-quality tea, according to the draft.

The capacity of Bangladesh Tea Research Institute has to be developed.

In 2013, some 390,238 people lived in the gardens. Of them, 202,923 are men and the rest women.

The number of registered workers is 106,204, with 51.44 percent being female. Some 28,313 workers are also employed on a temporary basis.

The draft said tea garden workers are suffering from weak health and malnutrition. Only 23 percent tea gardens have healthcare facilities.

Tea consumption in Bangladesh is increasing by the day, with the annual demand tipped to rise to 129.43 million kilograms in 2025.

At present, 1,270 kg of tea is grown per hectare, with the average usage of tea land being 51.42 percent.

There is scope to increase productivity in the tea industry. Particularly, tea farming can be increased in northern Bangladesh as well as three hilly districts.

Tea production can be raised to 110 million kg by 2025 from 162 gardens by increasing land usage to 55 percent and production to 1,500 kg per hectare, new plantation in very old and economically unprofitable section of gardens and bringing in new areas under tea cultivation.

The roadmap plans to construct 15,000 houses for workers, 15,000 toilets, 40 deep tube-wells and 4,500 hand-driven wells in order to improve the living standards of workers.

An additional 30,000 permanent jobs will be created for at least the next 50 years, according to the draft.