Kenyan experts train Mauritian farmers in tea cultivation
Wooton, Mauritius (PANA) – Mauritian tea growers on Tuesday started a three-day training programme with experts from the Tea Research Institute of Kenya, sponsored by the European Union (EU), to learn about new tea cultivation methods to review the entire production model in the country.
An official from the Food and Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (FAREI) said the objective of the training is to cater for capacity building to improve and sustain tea cultivation and production in Mauritius.
The training will focus on resilience, climate smart actions, fertiliser, and soil health and fertility.
The Senior Chief Executive of the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Medha Gunputh, said that the government was making relentless efforts to revive the tea industry.
“Farmers should avail themselves of all the facilities and schemes being extended by the government to engage in tea production,” he emphasised.
He stressed that the next objectives to boost the sector are to replace the old plantations and to improve soil fertility.
According to the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the FAREI, Mrs Micheline Seenevassen Pillay, the tea sector has regained its economic importance, and proposals have been made to relaunch the sector.
“Tea has been continuously cultivated for decades in Mauritius. There was now a need to review the fertiliser recommendation as well as to improve tea production and sustain soil fertility and tea plantation,” she said.
Mrs Pillay indicated that the Kenyan experts would analyse the tea sector and provide recommendations for a sustainable production.
“The objective is also to improve soil fertility in existing and new tea growing areas, adopt climate smart actions and technologies to promote and sustain production. It is also to integrate fertiliser management programmes and novel products as a substitute to chemical fertiliser, and revise fertiliser recommendations based on the local soil characteristics,” she underlined.
According to figures from the Ministry of Agro-industry and Food Security, the area under tea plantation in Mauritius in 2021 was 685 hectares.
Production of green tea leaves slid by 1.4% from 5,105 tonnes in 2020 to 5,034 tonnes in 2021. The production of manufactured tea inched up by 1.3% from 1,083 tonnes in 2020 to 1,097 tonnes in 2021.
-0- PANA NA/MA 21Sept2022
