Agriculture and Environment: Tea

Environmental Impacts of Production: Agrochemical Use

The chemical inputs applied on tea plantations have had a deadly effect on soil biodiversity while simultaneously polluting river water, killing fish, and harming the animals and people who depend on the rivers for water.

Agrochemicals used on tea plantations kill many of the microorganisms that live in soil.

Studies in India have shown that as much as 70% of soil biota has been lost on tea plantations as compared to nearby natural habitat, especially in areas that workers and machinery pass over (Senapati et al. 2002). The use of chemical fertilisers has resulted in decline in soil fertility (Fareed 1996).

In India as well as other producing countries, the tea industry has, until relatively recently, used pesticides that had been banned in developed nations. Such chemicals can have effects on human health through runoff as well as direct exposure when in the fields and spraying.

Among the pesticides used were synthetic pyrethroids, which, in addition to posing health risks to the immediate environment, can also be quite toxic to fish, downstream organisms, and certain beneficial insects such as bees, and even deplete the ozone layer (Fareed 1996).