MINERAL SPRING “ MINERAL SPRING ” a mainstream tea garden abandoned in early fifties revived now as a Small Farmers tea Project in partnership with TPI Selimbongis an example where it has been proved that organic and fair-trade is possible and very much successful and economically sustainable. This project run by the “Sanjukta Vikas Co-operative ”covers the busties of Harsing, Dabaipani, and Yangkhoo which lie on the Lebong Spur of the Darjeeling – Jalapahar Range, one of the great hill ranges radiating northwards towards Darjeeling from the central point, a saddle at Ghoom. Harsing is located 10kms away from Darjeeling town. Mineral Spring (Yangkhoo & Dabaipani) are further away across the valley, about 15kms. These areas come under Darjeeling Sub – division; Lebong II and Dabaipani Gram Panchayats. Many brainstorming sessions facilitated by DLR Prerna, a Darjeeling based NGO, saw the birth of Sanjukta Vikas Co-operative. The members of SVC elect three to five members per hamlet to form a hamlet committee who are responsible for the functioning of the hamlets out of which president and secretary becomes the ex-officio representative of SVC board who are responsible for the governance and policy of the SVC. The members DLR Prerna have an advisory role with no voting powers. Again, from the five selected hamlet committees members one or two depending upon the requirement form another parallel committee called Green Leaf Tea Committee, which remain responsible of all activities related to green leaf tea of the co-operative. There was noticeable positive change in the community with the formation of the SVC. SVC has 450 farmer families where all the farmers own their own land. SVC started selling teas in 1998 to Tea Promoters which has been processing and selling this as the first multi-cropping, co-operative based certified organic tea from Darjeeling. In this year the small farmers’ project was initiated in partnership with DLR Prerna where the green tea leaf of SVC was collected and processed by TPI in Selimbong, and marketed as Mineral spring co-operative tea. SVC was certified fair-trade in 2001. Mineral Spring is the first small farmers certified organic and fair trade labeled Darjeeling Tea which is produced by non-plantation farmers as a poly culture. The Mineral Spring community have undergone positive change with increasing capacity to manage their development needs within their community.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 09:28:32 +0000
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