The TRA forum provides a platform for its scientists, employees, members to exchange ideas and views on topics of their interest related to tea science, information technology and the industry in general. To become a member one has to submit an application form. The member types identified are a) Intra TRA for its scientists, employees, b) TRA Members to TRA i.e. (all member gardens and associate members) and c) Scientist (Global) to TRA. One has to select between any of the above to become a member as per their status. An applicant can become a registered member only on approval of the authorities at TRA. The application form for the three member types is different and can be seen through the drop down menu "new member registration".

Intra TRA is for TRA employees or people linked with the setup of TRA. They can post queries and view all answers including their queries and replies.

TRA Members to TRA, is for members of TRA who are member tea gardens, their executives, the associate members and their executives.

Scientist (Global) to TRA is for scientists who are residing nationally or internationally and can participate through the above forum.

A topic started by an Intra TRA member becomes restricted to Intra TRA members only but topic started in other sections can be viewed by all members of the forum which include TRA Members, Scientist (Global).

After scrutiny of application form and its acceptance the member would be provided with a username and password. To login type www.tocklai.net and select your member type from the options in forum dropdown. A login screen would appear, type the username and password and proceed.

The forum tree followed is as follows.

Category->Forum->Topic->Posts.

For example (Production->Soil Science->N% in Soil analysis->In our soil analysis we calculate N% from C% with a factor and hence what is the significance of reporting N% on dry weight basis? Can we determine available N content in soil in place of N% on dry weight basis?)

So to navigate and use the forum click on the Forum under a category. This would display the list of topics, topic started and last post. Click on the topic to view the replies. To post a reply navigate to the bottom of the page and use the post reply option. To create or post a new topic in a particular forum navigate to that forum by clicking on the forum in the home page and resulting in the display of topics already present. Here click on new topic button. The new topic button is also present in the replies page.

A facility is provided to view the recent activity in the forum. For this click on the Active topics link on top of any page, this would display the most recent topics. One may select the duration from the options provided.

For further information refer to click help icon on top of the forum window or contact the TRA Secretariat at Kolkata.