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An advisory centre was set up at Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri District of West Bengal as early as 1939 to serve the tea industry in the Dooars. This centre was later upgraded to a substation in 1981 with creation of four R&D departments, viz., Soil & water Management, Plant Protection, Agro-Botany and Manufacturing. The Advisory department provides service to Dooars (West Bengal) and Goalpara (Assam). It has two advisory branches one at Darjeeling and the other at Terai (Bengdubi).
ActivitiesThe substation has the dual activity of technology
transfer through advisory visits, training co The R&D activities are on plant improvement,
nutrition, pruning cycle, soil and water management, evaluation of safer pest
management schedules, pesticide residues, shear plucking, etc. Tea areas of DooarsThe area under tea in Dooars in West Bengal is about 68,000 ha and is located between 89° to 89°9'N latitude and 26°3' to 26°8'E longitude. There are 163 tea gardens in Dooars producing over 115 million kg of made tea per year. It accounts for 20% of the tea area and 21% of tea produced in North India. The productivity of the region (1795 kg made tea /ha) is higher than Assam average but almost at par with the national productivity. A large part of the Dooars tea districts is on old alluvial red soils known as the Red Bank soils. These are loamy soils of great depth, contain high organic matter and are acidic. At the other extreme are the grey, sandy loam soils of Eastern Dooars, which have undergone very little weathering and are rich in bases and phosphate but low in organic matter and nitrogen. Soils of very different types and ages are found within these classes. One is Mal sand in Western Dooars, which consists of fine quartz accompanied by a large percentage of talc and potash mica. Dolomite rocks are found to the north of Central and Eastern Dooars and some limestone deposits also lie scattered in the foothills of this region. The 'Plateau' soils of Western Dooars are fairly old deposits. In general, Dooars soils contain high organic matter compared to tea soils of Assam. The regions receive an average annual rainfall of more than 3000 mm but the distribution is highly uneven with 93% of total rainfall in May-October. The remaining 7% is distributed between November and April. The average maximum temperature ranges from 23.4 to 31°C and minimum 10.4 to 23.8°C. Excess rainfall causes severe waterlogging problems in plains while moisture stress in the lean dry months leads to severe droughts. Seepage in tea gardens with rolling topography is another problem limiting productivity in the region. In the face of recurring severe annual droughts, shade probably is the most important factor for mitigating the ill effects of moisture stress as well as augmenting productivity. In the early part of the season, during drought severe attacks of greenfly and thrips are often noticed. Red spider mite, caterpillar pests and Helopeltis are important pests in the region. Blister blight is becoming a seasonal disease in most of the estates while sporadic infection of black rot and red rust is found in pockets. Existing Facilities at the SubstationDepartments
Analytical facility/service
Research projects
Officers in the SubstationNagrakata SubstationTRA.nagrakata@tocklai.netChief Advisory Officer (WB)Dr.P.Ghosh,M.Sc.,Ph.D.Advisory OfficerMr.M.Fareed,M.Sc.,AgriAdvisory OfficerMr.P.Baruah,M.Sc.,Agri.,PGDHRM,DCOAsstt. Advisory OfficerDr.M.Goswami,M.Sc.,Ph.D.Assistant BiochemistDr.A.K.Gogoi,M.Sc.,Ph.D.For more information and service, contact:
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urses, field
demonstration for grass root level workers, area scientific committee (ASC)
seminars on agriculture and manufacturing, publication of quarterly advisory
bulletin, etc., and R&D. The soil-testing laboratory offers analytical
service to the member estates at a nominal cost. The substation also undertakes
bioassay of plant protection chemicals as a service function and carries out
regional field trials for technology refinement.
With the recent formation of
the North Bengal Committee of TRA, the research activities have been
strengthened further. Two routine advisory visits are scheduled annually and
special visits on request for specific problems. Training courses on water
management and pest management have been carried out. Forty-fifty field
demonstrations for grass root level workers are held in tea gardens in a year.
The ASC seminars on Agriculture and manufacturing are held annually. The
service function also includes organic manure testing. Planting material is
provided from its germ plasm plots for propagation by member estates.