CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday hiked the procurement price of green tea produced in Nilgris district from Rs six to Rs eight per kg. Around 22,000 small farmers, who are members of the 15 cooperative tea factories in the district, will benefit from this measure.The hike will be in force till December this year and the move will cost an additional expenditure Rs 11.20 crore to the exchequer, an official release here said.Since the private tea factories were paying Rs eight per kg, the Chief Minister had earlier ordered similar payment for the green tea procured from the cooperative tea factories for the month of May. Now, the Chief Minister has directed to pay the hiked procurement price till December this year. Around 60,000 small farmers depend upon tea farming for their livelihood. During the earlier AIADMK regime, Jayalalithaa had ordered selling the tea procured from Nilgris farmers under the brand name “Ooty tea” through the Public Distribution System. Further, Jayalalithaa also inaugurated an electronic auction centre, which was first of its kind in the world, on September 13, 2003, for procuring the tea produced by small farmers. Besides, she also implemented a special scheme to protect the small tea growers when the tea industry faced a major crisis in 2005.
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