Assam's tea registry move benefits 6 lakh small growers

Around six lakh people in Assam stand to benefit from the state government's decision to include tea and plantation class landholdings in its farmers' registry portal. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma formalized the inclusion on June 26, giving small tea growers access to a Farmer ID that bundles personal details with Aadhaar-linked land records into one platform.

That credential becomes the single proof of identity and ownership for every subsidy application, fertiliser order, and crop insurance claim. An Agriculture Department official quoted in the announcement said the portal allows direct transfer of financial aid without the leakage common in paper-based systems. Sarma called the move a way to cut out middlemen and open better credit terms.

Bidyananda Barkakoty, adviser to the North Eastern Tea Association, put the direct beneficiary count above six lakh, assuming an average household size of four. He noted that Assam has 133,626 officially registered small tea growers, with the real figure likely above 150,000. Those growers contribute nearly half of Assam's total green leaf production, Barkakoty said.