Necessary Geographical Conditions:
1. Temperature: This is a tropical plant. For it, 25° to 30° centigrade temperature is ideal. Rainfall : 200 to 250 cm rain is necessary. Rain shower is suitable.
2. Soil: Deep and sulphurous soil is good for it. Land prepared by cleaning the forest is good for it.
3. Land: Sloping land is necessary for it. Accumulation of water in roots is harmful. Thus, Tea plantations are grown on sloping hills.
In India, tea farming was started first in 1940 in Brahmaputra valley in Assam. At present, this area is most important with tea cultivation point of view.
Major tea producing areas are given below:
1. Assam: Due to favourable geographical conditions here, presence of 50% tea producing areas of the country and 54% tea production of the country both make this state the first position holder. Shivsagar, Lakhimpur, Darang, Golpara, Naogaon etc. are major districts. Due to increasing tea production in other states of India, especially in the south, the importance of tea in Assam is relatively declining.
2. West Bengal: This is second largest tea producing area. Here, 22.36% tea of the country is produced. Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, CoochBehar, Purulia, etc, are major producing areas. Darjeeling tea is the best which is largely demanded in the country as well as abroad.
3. Tamil Nadu: if is on third position by producing 12% tea of the country. The hills of Nilgiri and Annamalai produce 46% and 38% tea of the state respectively. This tea is in demand in European countries.
4. Kerala: Here 8.5% tea of the country is grown and produced. Trichur, Palghat, Kannur, Trivendrum, Kozhikode, Malapuram are major producing areas.
Other Producing States: Green tea of Kangra Coorg Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Almora in Garhwal, Mysuru, Chikmagalur districts of Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, also produce tea in small quantity. All these states together produce 1% tea of the country.
