Compared to their counterparts in Dooars or Assam, the tea growers in the Darjeeling area are facing multiple problems which are retarding plans for greater crop production and yields in the area. Moreover, Darjeeling teas are susceptible to 70 per cent withering compared to a 30 per cent in the Dooars.

Few of the planters at the estate level explained that the Darjeeling gardens had a very low yield of 576 kgs per hectare. This is just about a third of the national yield of 1726 kgs. The cost of tea at such low yields works out to be Rs 200 per kilogram, said a planter. In sharp contrast, the Dooars tea estates have a high yield of 1849, whereas few divisions in Assam have still higher yields as 2006 in Goalpara and 2205 in Dibrugarh.

According to a planter, rising labour costs have also affected margins of companies. With the labour costs moving up by 22 per cent over the lasttwo years (Rs 32.30 according to revision on 1.4.98 against Rs 26.60 in 1996), it has become difficult for the Darjeeling planters all the more as yield per hectare has been below the 1000 mark. On the other hand, Dooars and other areas have been able to absorb the extra burden of labour costs maintaining higher yields.

Pluckings of Darjeelings have to be very fine at the garden level especially to maintain a quality checks. This is justified as the first and second flush teas are primarily exported and hence the quality factor becomes indispensable. Even for the post rains variety, planters have become quite sensitive to quality standards and coarse plucking has been on the decline at nearly all the gardens.

The problem of the top soil has been quite disturbing at times, as lack of replanting activities and use of fertilisers have led to a lack of nourishment in the soil content. "The soil has become practically dead with less of organisms", said a planter.

Many of the bigger gardens are thinking interms of captive power for their gardens as non-availability of power is a serious disadvantage. Many of the plantations have run operations on Diesel generation sets to overcome this problem.