The Tea Board of India announced at the end of January 2019 an initiative for small tea growers (STGs) that five years ago would have seemed a fantasy but today is just an application of well-established computer and communication tools. The innovation – and effort – is in the mobilization of users, not in the technology.
Chai Sahay – “Tea Help” – is the preliminary name for a smartphone app that will initially be used by the regulatory authority to issue a wide range of information, record data on field activities and garden conditions, including pesticides, and help monitor and report on farm visits. The system handles six languages, including Hindi, Assamese, Bengali and English. It is designed to provide forecasts and alerts based on AI machine learning models that will work with a growing range of micro-level data. A priority is to offer tailored recommendations for plucking, pruning and weed management, among others. Chai Sahay will also handle many administrative paper-dominated tasks, such as STG registration.
The impetus for Chai Sahay is the extensive shift in India’s tea farming. Five years ago, STGs accounted for 25% of total production. This has almost doubled, to a reported 47% at the end of 2018. There are over 200,000 STGs. Larger growers and elite estates have escalated their complaints bout STGs’ overall quality and use of pesticides. The Chai Sahay plan is to increase information, education, and guidance simply and conveniently.
It’s a start and the merit of smartphone Android-based apps is that they can be handled as building blocks, adding capabilities and features as you do on your own smartphone. India was a pioneer in mobile phone deployment, with Bharti Airtel the world’s price and service leader, with a strong presence in the rural agriculture communities. Much of he Chai Sahay infrastructure for deployment and evolution is already in place. The main blockages are likely to be funding and coordination of the rollout.
It’s also a signal of what is to come. Look back five years at how much technological change has become practical in the tea fields. Then look ahead five years; the degree of innovation will be at least as fast and wide.