The transformation of an organic tea field in Assam (India) into an economic bastion: establishing new standards for park management; strengthen the community.
Written by Gunter Pauli
author of "L'Économie Bleue" March 1, 2016
Kaziranga received a preliminary notification as a forest reserved in 1905 and the park has been listed as World Heritage since 1985 and famous more than 80 years of nature conservation. The population of rhinos, elephants and tigers has increased considerably over time. The Hathikuli Organics company, a tea plantation created over a century ago, decided in 2007 to transform the field into a biological company, in order to reduce the flow of chemicals in the park to zero. The challenge is to know how to transform the company into profit, and how to cover the budget in full expansion of the park which is increasingly diverting the essential resources of public and private institutions to fight against poachers attracted by the largest population of Rhinoceros Asian in the world.
Introduction
ASSAM has 32 million inhabitants. It is located in the far northeast of India, on the border of China and Myanmar. It is here that the British colonizers established tea plantations more than a century ago, long before the use of chemicals in agriculture, in order to ensure the tea supply of England when the opium wars cut the supply of China. ASSAM produces 60 % of all the tea consumed in India. Here, under the direction of the Tata group, it was decided to convert a large region of tea culture of 450 hectares into a 100 % organic certified exploitation. The logic was simple and yet exemplary in the sector: the teapot, located on the buttresses bordering Kaziranga National Park. How to have a lucrative activity when the cocktail of chemicals which flows pollutes the park and the Bhramaputra river which runs along the park and which is one of the best areas of fish reproduction in the world, nourishing hundreds of millions of people downstream? It is in this region that the Indian government and conservation NGOs have successfully demonstrated, in cooperation with the visionaries of the communities and the Tata group, that it is possible to regenerate the population of all the fauna, including tigers, rhinos and elephants, while finding a coexistence with a growing local population. It is now a question of designing a competitive business model for agriculture and industry throughout the area of influence of the Kaziranga park, where the generated value makes it possible to maintain the extraordinary ecosystem services, from biodiversity to soil fertility, to create jobs - the best antidote to poaching - and to build the community.
Biological certified
The immediate challenge faced by Hathikuli's biological tea domain is that the productivity of these centenary bushes has dropped more than half at a time when chemicals and synthetic fertilizers have been ceased. While traditional tea experts accuse the lack of synthetic fertilizers and the fight against parasites, it is important to determine the origin of this spectacular drop in production: the soil has been emptied of its carbon. When there is no carbon, there is no microorganisms that feed the roots, and less water is retained, which increases the need for irrigation. There are two options: either we start to create a chemical line of life for these old tea trees, or we regenerate a dynamic natural environment for soil microorganisms and insects that restore the upper layer of carbon soil and nutrients. The recreation of such a natural environment requires above all to restore carbon this thin layer of the skin of the earth. An analysis indicates that the carbon carbon content fell to less than 1 %, while local forests still contain 6 %, while the wealthiest soils for agriculture, known as the Terra Preta, would have a carbon content of more than 30 %. Intensive agriculture extracts carbon from the soil, which implies that only a permanent additional intake of external energy from petrochemical resources can allow plants to maintain their productivity. This harsh reality obliges a critical analysis of the term "certified biological". This label, which has been applied with slightly different standards worldwide, essentially indicates to consumers which "is not" in the purchased product. That is to say that this tea or cotton has not been subject to the application of pesticides, herbicides and/or synthetic fertilizers. However, this certificate does not say anything on the ground, nor on the content of the food or the clothes purchased! While the Tata group has actively sought the biological label according to the definition of organic products in the United States, in Europe and Japan, by submitting to an expensive certification process each time, it has never come in mind that this independent verification says nothing about the extraordinary context: the protection of the largest park in rhinoceros in the world against the chemicals of runoff. The second requirement is to reintroduce biodiversity. This is a challenge in a tea plantation where management will follow the modern mantra of concentration, limiting activity to the main activity, built around basic competence. However, when this unique activity does not generate the income and margins necessary to support the company, it is then necessary to choose between the commercial imperative to reduce costs, increase productivity and reduce the workforce, or opt for additional crop income which can be quickly and effectively cultivated and harvested using available resources. While the holder of a traditionally formed business administration would reject the idea of creating additional income flows, it may be the best way to generate liquidity and reconstruct the soil, by recovering the fertility he needs so much.
Reopening of the migration corridor
The management of the tea plantation went beyond the elimination of the chemical load of the flora and fauna of the park, by opening, for the first time in the world, a corridor of migration and leak for mammals through its domain. The plains of the Brahmapoutre river are part of a unique ecosystem which undergoes annual floods. The spectacular elevation of the water level rids this area of almost 500 square kilometers of all debris, replenish the surface soil in silt containing a large quantity of nutrients from the Himalayas and guarantees that next spring, the high and lush herbs will provide abundant food for rhinoceros, with wilderness, wilderness Species of birds and plants, thus creating such a reserve of food that predators such as tigers will be able to take full advantage of it. However, during the flood season, all animals must migrate to the hills surrounding the plains. As human establishments went from a few thousand when the park was created at 150,000, and tea plantations were densified as they expand, the passage from the river basin to the highlands was obstructed, which led to conflicts between humans and migratory animals. The tea plantation recognized that the only way to resolve the confrontation between wild fauna and man and his tea culture activity was to ensure a safe passage for animals. Hathikuli Organic donated a terrestrial corridor to tea plantation to the national park. Wildlife does not like confrontation, and when a passage is offered, many animals seek and find their way to higher altitudes, on both sides of the river. This is the first known plantation which opens a migration route reducing the collision between men and fauna while respecting the need of animals to browse the land as they did for millennia before the expansion of human establishments, and certainly before the establishment of a commercial plantation.
How to fight against poaching while making profits with organic products?
In 1823, Robert Bruce noticed, during a commercial mission, that the variety of tea Assamica pushed in the wild in the hills of RangPor. The cultivation of tea is done here under sub-optimal conditions compared to the Darjeeling region in India. Assam's winters are colder, temperatures falling 3 to 5 centigrade degrees. The Himalayas is within sight. This results in an annual judgment of three to four months of the tea leaves harvest. Thus, during the winter season, the tea treatment plant is closed, and although certain maintenance work is undertaken, this affects the employment of staff. The Hathikuli Organic employs 850 people full -time, manages 550 homes in its premises and has 1,500 temporary workers. However, these temporary workers are without work at least 5 months per year. It was during this period that the wild fauna would be the most threatened. The tea plantation is the largest employer in the region, eclipstating the National Park which employs 1,200 people. Stable and full -time jobs are essential so that the inhabitants are not tempted to engage in poaching. The best way to guarantee that those who best know the configuration of the land, day and night, refuse to participate in poaching is to have full -time jobs in the region. The inhabitants who are the best informed about the operations of the park and the movements of the rhinoceros, elephants and tigers, the animals which appear at the top of the list of species to be killed illegally, should all have a job. As long as there is unemployment, hunger and malnutrition, a lack of health care and no encouragement of local culture and traditions, including crafts, music and dance, the inhabitants are likely to take refuge in illegal companies. The day I made my first elephant back ride, driving rhinos in the plains of the Brahmapoutre river, a rhinoceros was killed by poachers at dawn. Although the authors failed to take the horn, irreparable damage was caused by taking the life of a highly threatened animal. This deep penetration of illegal hunters in the park confirmed that they had a very good knowledge of the area, and at least had to have been advised by premises. This is one of the main reasons why the creation of permanent jobs must be a priority. However, the harsh reality of the tea industry is by transforming planting into biological planting and yielding the corridor to migration, the company has lost money. Under these conditions, we cannot hope to increase the number of salaried workers. On the contrary, the Board of Directors and the shareholders are pressure so that after years of intensive engagement in favor of the environment and the implementation of a social program including crèches and children's gardens for employees, a social center for staff and a hospital running 24 hours a day for all residents of the region, the field is profitable. This is called "the commercial imperative". The productivity of tea trees has dropped by almost 70 %, while the treatment capacity remained the same, which increased the general costs. Just when all the biological certifications have been successfully obtained, an insect attack affects a third of the plantation. While in the past, this attack by the Helopeltis (tea mosquito) would have been quickly controlled with a pesticide, this solution is now prohibited by the guidelines of biological certification. These pests require biological remediation. Employment therefore increases while increasing costs and accumulating greater losses. It is in this context of doing good to the environment and the local population that we must design a better model of income which also makes it possible to reconstruct the arable soil and to provide a diversity of income, while reducing risks. Unless Hathikuli becomes profitable within a reasonable time, the initial intentions of finding a coexistence between the fauna and the flora of the park, human establishments with culture and traditions, and the functioning of companies as a source of generation of value, go from a vision to a failure. This cannot happen.
A portfolio of initiatives
The company Amalgamated PVT Plantations. Ltd. (APP) which is finally the owner of this unique experience, is committed to finding a solution. The team's initial logic was to diversify the planting income. This idea was not always well received by the traditional management which insisted on the concentration and reduction of costs. They tried many cultures, but finally hit the bull's eye by planting pepper vines that populate the shadow trees covering plantation. Starting from a organic tea plantation, the canopy of trees that covers bushes offers a certified organic environment to grow organic pepper. This certificate has been obtained and sales contribute to the profitability of the company. A first modest step that we describe as "diversification within tea plantation" using the ecosystem services of tea plantation to generate more value. It is more effective than replacing tea with another culture. The intention to apply is that each planting tree produces pepper. It's logical. The pepper must be dried, the installation is available, the investment costs are therefore minimal. A second initiative concerns water. Plantation needs to be irrigated. Over the years, the area has relied on deep tubular wells. Over time, the managers have found a drop in the water table, an increase in pumping costs and realized that the local population very probably also extracted water to meet their needs. This has reduced the park's water tables, affecting flora and fauna, especially during the dry season. It was therefore decided to create 18 rainwater collection pools. This offered another opportunity: fish farming. After a few years of research, the leaders of Hathikuli concluded that biological farming from up to six types of carp according to the traditional Chinese method which exploits each trophic level, from herbivorous carp to background fish, was the way to follow. Faced with the lack of local supply with solid and healthy spurring which provide fry, farmers have decided to create their own breeding pools. A first -hand verification has demonstrated a very healthy, diversified and prosperous fish population. It is appropriate to emphasize that the Brahmapoutre river is - after the Amazon basin - the second largest fish farming region in the world, and that a farm initiative could therefore stimulate local fish protein, instead of overfishing, acid or dynamite fishing that today weighs on the resources of the river.
Go beyond evidence
These two initiatives have decided to orient the transformation of this tea plantation: a company which uses what is available locally, which does good to people, in the park and which makes profit by generating more value. The question is how speed can be implemented on a larger and wider scale. After having suffered millions of losses per year, shareholders' patience has limits. On the basis of two decades of integrated fish farming, initially inspired by the pioneer work of Professor George Chan of Mauritius and Professor Li Kangmin of China, we have provided the plan of a vision which integrates all the available resources and is based on the initial measures taken by the ATP team. The most important potential contribution is not the invention of a new technology, nor the development of another management concept. Rather, it is a question of connecting all the activities and operations of the tea field to a series of processes including feedback loops which create multiplier effects using both existing capital investments (CAPEX) and daily operational costs (OPEX). It is necessary to establish an inventory of the way in which costs can be transformed into revenues and in which not exploited assets can produce more cash flow. The following pages are devoted to describing what is possible, and providing the fundamental elements to implement this portfolio of opportunities.
Start with the abundance of pruning
The size of the tea trees represents the first large volume of waste which remains underused on the operation. Its volume and weight are a multiple of tea harvest. Management has ceased to burn these debris and resorted to composting. It is important to recall that abandoned teaiers become large leafy trees. Thus, pruning slows down growth thanks to a masterful cutting process and promotes the growth of fresh leaves, which are harvested and transformed locally into tea. Since hardwood takes years to deteriorate, the return of these organic debris in soil nutrients is slow and certainly does not contribute to the urgent need to restore carbon soil, any more than it generates more income or does not help reduce costs. The best solution is to use these hundreds of tons of organic matter to cultivate mushrooms. Mushrooms are not only an extraordinary wooden degrades, these lignocellulose devouurs produce fruits with commercial value. A ton of hardwood can generate up to half shiitake mushrooms. Now, if we plan the sagging of the substrate as a function of the pruning and vegetation of the fungi, we can then plan the harvest at the same period when no harvesting and transformation factory of tea remains inactive. This implies that the drying, grinding and sinking installations spend 7 months to an entire year. This immediately contributes to profit and employment. Part -time staff can now be full time, more versatile, better paid and involved in the development of new activity, which improves food quality and safety. In addition to pruning, the park and its surroundings suffer from pockets of water hyacinthe infestation. Research and practice in Africa has proven that this invasive fibrous perennial plant, whose seeds germinate for seven years, is an ideal substrate for mushrooms as well. Thus, when pruning is exhausted, water hyacinths can supplement the supply of substrates, creating a stable activity with multiple sources of raw materials. It could even be converted into a company operating all year round, increasing the processing volume of the factory and income, also for the local population. This would immediately transform the downtime of 4 months currently used royally to clean and maintain the factory, in a 4 -month operation where exactly the same installation for drying, grinding and packaging of tea is used for mushrooms. This would represent an increase of at least $ 1,000 per tonne of processed mushrooms, more than the current tea price on the market. Since the quantity of size is a multiple of the quantity of tea sheets, these 4 months of exploitation could contribute considerably to turnover and to the benefit by distributing the general costs over a full year. Although the figures remain to be determined, it is not difficult to summarize on the "back of an envelope" the impact of this expansion of the company. The preparation of the cultivation of fungi could arouse a large participation of citizens, as is the case for the cultivation of mushrooms in China. The volume of mushroom bags can reach thousands, even hundreds of thousands. There is no need to keep them at the factory. The central production unit would focus on the transformation of size into "bricks" for the inoculation of mycelium, which could be produced locally under strict hygiene conditions, as well as in one of the existing laboratories in the domain. It is possible to place the vegetative bags (when the fungus enters the substrate) in the houses of the local population, by ensuring a participation of the communities, starting with the employees who transform their spouses and their children in partners. Culture thus becomes a community effort. The income from the cultivation of fungi being higher than those of tea, one can be generous by fixing the standard. There is an additional advantage: the cultivation of home fungi requires a strict application of hygiene standards which not only increase the productivity of fruiting, but also have a positive impact on the health of the members of the community. In a second phase of culture, called fruiting, mushrooms need a neat environment for a long period of harvest. The process requires regular hydration, guaranteeing spontaneous growth and an attractive appearance and shape of mushrooms. Large mushrooms, which represent 10% of the market, can be sold on the fresh market, others can be transformed into a factory, requiring drying and mixing. Although mushrooms are not exactly the same as tea, a large part of the installation can be used for both. A test will quickly determine the exact configuration. According to our experience, we know that the safest way to develop this activity is to involve communities of women who will have "green hands" to make it a prolific agricultural activity. The production of thousands of tonnes of mushrooms could be transformed, into cooperation with the largest culinary brands in the world such as the Noma of Denmark (recognized for years as the best restaurant in the world), in cubes based on very popular plants and nutrients, containing a variety of carefully selected mushrooms, pepper from local harvest and dozens of native herbs that could also be cultivated by communities in order to offer a series of extraordinary mixtures. This process was tested in Zimbabwe, with domesticated mushrooms cultivated on agricultural waste, including coffee, and could be transposed to tea.
Are mushrooms competitive?
These mushrooms will be competitive on the market. First, because the raw material is fresh and local. Second, because there is a market ready for organic organic mushrooms industrially produced. Third, because there are easily available equipment goods that can be deployed without additional investment cost, in particular the energy source which can ensure sterilization guaranteeing high productivity. Although profitability analysis must be more detailed, logic can be explained on the basis of comparable cases worldwide. The social impact is immediate, and would generate the type of additional income in closely linked families which offers the additional advantage of cohesion reducing the risk of embezzlement to poaching.
How to reconstruct the soil?
A question is essential: what about the compost and the need to restock the land in organic matter? An examination of the health and solidity of the soil reveals that this thin layer of soil has been exploited to its limits. The carbon content is less than one percent. It is not enough to apply compost. One of the best immediate sources of carbon and nitrogen is the worn substrate of mushrooms. Ironically, the size that takes too long to degrade, is thanks to the mushrooms enriched with amino acids, and brings a richness in carbon and nitrogen which has been extracted by air mushrooms. This means that the cultivation of fungi is not only an economic activity in its own right, but that it is also an essential element of the recovery of soil fertility. This soil needs an urgent reconstruction of carbon and, if the used substrate is an excellent first step, it takes more to reach the fertility levels known several decades ago. A reference rate of 30 to 35 % carbon would be ideal. The recent science of the Terra Preta, the Black Earth, as it was practiced by the Incas, the native populations of the Amazon and the Vikings, shows that a combination of organic matter with charcoal and excrement provides one of the richest soils with long -term sustained fertility. The question is how a tea plantation can access such a rich source of carbon and accumulate it in addition to fungi. The strategy pursued in Brazil and elsewhere consists in converting the layers to the Terra Preta, a nuisance of modern times very practical, but costly for the environment. If and when the layers are mainly produced from bamboo, with two simple bioplastic sheets, embellished with bamboo coal which is a balancing agent for the baby's skin, then this material can be converted into a ready -made terra in carbon. The local population being 150,000 inhabitants, the number of babies could be estimated at 1,000 which could each produce a ton of terra Preta per year. This represents a thousand tons of material rich in carbon, while creating value for bamboo, abundant in the region, and creating additional jobs in the process. Although this is not enough for planting, it could become one of the contributory factors. Although the design of a lasting and profitable activity for locally manufactured layers requires more efforts, this is how the blue economy integrates into the local community, built and intertwining multiple activities which stimulate the local economy since more money circulates in the pockets of local communities with a powerful platform to create a high -end brand of tea.
Find out more about fish ponds
Fish ponds could also help to restore the soil in nutrients. If the 18 water retention dikes were converted into fish farms and operated throughout the year, the intensive farming of multiculture with only a limited number of fundamental organizations would convert into one of the richest fertilizer suppliers. After harvesting fish, drying up for winter ponds would provide a mud rich in nitrogen at a marginal cost, while cleaning up the ponds thanks to the exposure of the bottom to a few weeks of ultraviolet sun. If these fish are fed by a cycle which begins with a digester, whose mud is then mineralized by algae basins, the feed flow of the basins will include a rich mixture of benthos, zooplankton and phytoplankton. This effective nutrient cycle makes it possible to nourish the fish. This reduces the cost of nutrition produced outside, thus increasing the liquidity available locally. However, one of the disadvantages of the current installation is that winters in Assam can be cold, with temperatures descending to 3-5 degrees centigrades. If this is true, and affects fish farms, it is also true that the production of hot air for the tea drying process (and mushrooms) is based on three wood and charcoal power stations. The exhaust gases of the three chimneys could be refined for SOX and NOX, while the remaining warm air, rich in CO2, could be used to cultivate spirulina and heat the basins. This would require the additional investment of approximately three kilometers of isolated hot water pipes. Such an expense would make the productivity of fish from the current 3.5 tonnes per hectare and per year pass to at least 10 tonnes. This represents for the 18 ponds an annual production of around 200 tonnes of fish, a considerable addition to food security, based on healthy fish protein, generating an additional income for tea plantation which goes beyond tea, pepper and fungi. You could say that each tonne produced on earth will save a ton of river fish. We now bring together multiple financial flows around the available resources of tea plantation ... and all this is biological. We would say that it goes beyond organic! This goes far beyond the desire and the need to reduce costs to survive.
Of a loss to multiple money backwards
Now that the commercial product portfolio has extended to four organic products, tea plantation becomes more than a simple tea producer. Operations generate multiple cash flows using existing resources, meet the basic needs of exploitation - in particular soil production and abundant and rich water supply, industrial transformation generating value, the local community eager for more numerous and stable jobs, and shareholders wishing to transform a deficit exploitation into a exploitation capable of maintaining. Now, well considered, it is important to go beyond the traditional marketing of "organic". This tea plantation is not content to provide quality products, it potentially contributes to the company and to the natural park in an never seen before. It reinforces not only its own operations by ensuring the future of the company itself, but it increases the resilience of communities while building an economy that develops without exhausting resources and without endangering the delicate balance with the prosperous fauna which borders the plantation. In fact, this economic model regenerates the ecosystem, with unique attention, and strengthens the resilience of the region. This tea plantation will become an important tourist destination, in addition to the park itself. This will support sales more, will strengthen the brand which must exploit the marketing power that this story provides. It is an era of specialty teas that has no competition in the world. It must be explained as a path to harmony between communities, fauna and flora of the park's housing and the commercial imperatives of a company.
Go beyond tea and mushrooms
Lbien sure, this is only the beginning. There are many other challenges to be met and many opportunities to exploit. The development of herbicides and biological pesticides could become another pillar. This goes beyond the activities of Amalgamated Plantations. However, as a key customer for biochemical products that meet the most strict biological standards in the world, the field can kick off a new industry. Since the Tata Chemicals group has decided to abandon traditional petrochemical products to enter the market for nutraceutical and biochemical products, it is possible to create a synergy between tea plantations and the chemical industry. The number of potential products is vast, and we are only touched on the surface. Tests have shown that elephants are very sensitive to capsaicin, which is the spicy substance of red pepper. The strongest peppers in the world are cultivated in Assam, which could be another option to explore. These shrubs are easy to plant and could surround tea plantation with an obvious effect on wild animals. They could be mixed with mushrooms and other herbs to offer original mixtures. Let us add that tea chemistry requires a more in -depth study. Over the past 20 years, we have participated in the discovery of coffee chemistry. We first understood that coffee is an ideal substrate for mushrooms (post-harvest, post-industrial and post-consumption). We then learned that the used substrate after harvesting mushrooms is a competitive food for chickens and an ideal ground enrichment. Coffee grounds are used to combat smells in textiles, carpets and refrigerators, while protecting UV rays paint, extending its lifespan, and serving the laboratory of the excellent hydrogen absorber, in competition with the platinum in fuel cells. Is it possible that this tea/park initiative is the platform for a vast initiative on tea chemistry? I hope so. Tea chemistry is only taught to tea infusion experts. It is not taught to those who imagine the industries of the future in general and the chemistry of tea in particular. If the ASSAM must provide livelihoods beyond the delivery of cheap tea at 60 % of the Indian population, it must engage in the direction chosen by the Tata group and the team of Amalgamated Plantations and go far beyond what could have been imagined by the visionaries who created the Park more than a century ago and which launched the tea plantation at the same time.
This is only the beginning
The sums spent in tea planting throughout this biological conversion process should not be considered losses, but rather as investments in corporate social responsibility (CSR). A group of the size and reputation of Tata, should not consider these initiatives as purely operational forcing this company to integrate into the traditional management of the supply chain which aims to offer tea at a low and competitive price to European customers. The strategy that unfolds and the story that has not yet been told to the general public, clearly prepare the terrain for an extraordinary positioning of its brand image ... beyond CSR. It is the beginning of a powerful tea specialty with a premium brand that has no competition in the world. This "tea" symbolizes much more than a drink in a global price of price, quality, profitability and market share. Until today, the company has chosen not to share this extraordinary combination between the management of one of the richest and richest ecosystems in world biodiversity and the search for a profitable economic model. This story has the right to be told and could be at the heart of a high -end world brand, a prosperous community and a resilient ecosystem. The Kaziranga World Park and World Heritage Site, as well as ASSAM tea cultivators, certainly deserve a better way than the logic of cost reduction and rationalization of operations, while the alternatives described are not only viable, but also at hand, on the basis of results experienced elsewhere in the world. This should benefit the company beyond the tea company, it is from the new strategy for chemicals (since only biochemical products can be used) and on the company of food products which could now enter a wider range of products, including the industrial culture and transformation of fungi. If this is viable in the biological field of Hathikuli, commercial logic can be extended to the 25 other tea plantations that the Tata Control group. This effort can then be transformed into a business commercial strategy. And this is a lesson that the whole world would like to be inspired! For a brief video summarizing "the challenge" described above, please consult the following site
