Tea Board Expands Auctions, Promotes AI-Based Smart Plantations

Tea Board India is pursuing a combination of auction reforms, technology-driven cultivation and research-led product development to improve price realisation for tea producers, strengthen plantation productivity and make scientific knowledge more accessible to growers, particularly small tea producers.

Addressing the 62nd Annual General Meeting of the Tea Research Association (TRA), Tea Board Deputy Chairperson C. Murugan said the board was working to expand auction centres, encourage greater buyer participation and promote smart plantations using artificial intelligence (AI), drones, GPS and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

The board has recently opened auction centres in Dibrugarh and Jorhat in Assam, plans to open another in Agartala by the end of October 2026, and is working to reopen Jalpaiguri's centre. Surveys are also underway in Arunachal Pradesh. India's existing auction centres include Kolkata, Siliguri, Guwahati, Coonoor, Coimbatore and Kochi.

The board plans to rationalise tea sample sizes and allow producers greater control over which buyers receive free samples. Murugan said increased participation by registered buyers could strengthen competition and improve prices.

An earlier initiative provides a historical benchmark. The Tea Board's 2024–25 annual report recorded 103.22 million kg of specified dust-grade tea sold at an average ₹231.31 per kg up to Sale No. 13 of 2025, against 86.33 million kg at ₹181.80 per kg during the comparable previous-year period. The initiative also incorporated mandatory food-safety testing.

Meanwhile, the board is implementing smart-plantation measures in Coonoor and identifying estates in northeastern India and West Bengal's Dooars region. Proposed interventions include drone-based pest and disease monitoring, GPS, sensors and carbon-crediting systems.

The CHAAYANKAN project, announced by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in September 2026, brings together Tea Board India, ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre and NIT Rourkela. Scheduled until March 2029, it will use satellite and drone data with AI to map plantations, detect crop stress, forecast pests and diseases, and estimate green-leaf yields.

Union Minister Pabitra Margherita also launched TocklAI, an AI platform developed by TRA using its scientific research archive. More than 2,000 publications have been digitised, with completion expected within 18 months. TRA Secretary Joydeep Phukan said small growers produce more than half of India's tea but have limited research access.

Murugan also urged TRA to accelerate product diversification to attract younger consumers, particularly Gen Z. The success of these initiatives will depend on wider adoption, stronger buyer participation and measurable improvements in growers' returns and plantation productivity.