Tea farming profitable on Mambilla Plateau

A total of 1,200 hectares of farmland is currently being cultivated for tea production on the Mambilla Plateau of Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State. While 600 of those hectares are being cultivated by Mambilla Beverage Company, producers of Highland Tea, the local farmers empowered by the company also known as ‘out growers’ are […]

A total of 1,200 hectares of farmland is currently being cultivated for tea production on the Mambilla Plateau of Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State. While 600 of those hectares are being cultivated by Mambilla Beverage Company, producers of Highland Tea, the local farmers empowered by the company also known as ‘out growers’ are cultivating the remaining 600 hectares and sell their harvest to the company.
About seven communities on the Mambilla have been identified as having great potentials in tea cultivation. Many places on the Mambilla Plateau are productive in tea farming.
Speaking on the cultivation of tea at the estate, the Senior Manager (Estate) of the Mambilla Beverages Company, Robert Bonchak, said the conditions that make tea thrive on the Mambilla include good altitude, soil type, good rainfall and other favourable climatic conditions.
He said tea requires an altitude of about 1,400 meters above sea level and rainfall of about 1,400 millimeters per annum which made planting of tea to be carried out in two major ways- by seed propagation and vegetative propagation or cutting.
He said the tea seedlings used for the initial propagation of the estate were obtained from Kenya while the subsequent planting were done through vegetative propagation (cuttings) for reproduction.
He said the cutting propagation is preferable because it develops faster than the seed propagation, adding that while the seed method takes about seven years to mature, the cutting method takes between three to four years to mature.
“There are some conditions that will favour tea production; and we look first at the altitude; the altitude should be between 1,500 or 1,400 meters above sea level and when you come to climate, rainfall should be 1400 millimeters per annum and tea also will need a very good soil that is slightly acidic and well drained.
“Normally the pot is supposed to be 9 inches, the 6 inches below we used virgin top soil while for the remaining 3 inches we use virgin red soil or top soil. Normally, you will mix the top soil with some fertilizers to enhance the establishment of the roots after you have planted the cuttings into it. The callous develops at the topsoil and from there the roots go into the red soil.
“It will take up to four to five months and then you will do what we call hardening off, otherwise known as weaning.
“In the nursery, we have two types of tents, the primary tent and the secondary tent. From the primary tent you transfer the plant to the secondary tent and you begin first with air hardening-off and move on to sun hardening off,” he said.
He advised that one should start with 15 minutes and keep doubling until he attains 24 hours and then goes back to the length side of the tent and open it for 15 minutes again and keep doubling for 24 hours. “Once you complete that, then you remove the tent. The second part is you go to sun hardening. The secondary tent is completely covered with grass and shade, both at the side and at the top.
“What you do is that you begin to gradually reduce the grass at the top and you introduce the plant that you have completed the air hardening off to various amounts of sunlight because the sunlight at present is at 80 percent and you begin to reduce it from 80 to 70 to 60 to 50 to 40 to 30 and when you get to 20, you know it is now ready then you remove the whole tent and allow the sun to fall directly upon it and that one will take you another 7 to 8 months again while it is in the nursery depending on the clonally material.
“On the average, it takes between 9 to 12 months in the nursery before transplanting a tea plant from the nursery to the field. And in the field also, the planting is very technical. You have to maintain spaces between all the pots; you have to give allowance so they will be established because any defect in the holing will amount to heavy casualty,” he said.
He said in tea farming, there is a period called ‘flush’ or ‘peak period’ when the tea tends to yield more, saying the period falls between October and November and also at the setting in of the rainy season.
“What happens with tea is that immediately the rain establishes all the tea grows rapidly. You will see heavy crop on the field. Immediately that tea is harvested, you will see that the growth above will stop and grow below. They will develop new roots because the rainy season is now established.
“It will grow young roots to prepare itself to eat food and once that finishes, the growth above goes on again. So, we have two peak periods; we have the one immediately the rain has established and then we have the one from around October to November,” he said.
Although there are over 35 different varieties of tea also known as ‘clones’, but only five clones are presently being cultivated at the Mambilla tea estate that include 31/8, 14/3, 3/5, 23/6 and 6/8 clones.

Bonchak said the 14/3 clone is a very high yielding tea variety that also has a fast ‘plucking cycle’ but has less weight. Next to it is the 31/8 clone which has more weight than the 14/3 clone. 23/6 clone has low production but has high aroma. He said there is usually a blending of the five tea varieties right from the field before they are taken to the factory for production.
“We are doing what we call field blending, at any given time you are harvesting or plucking, you must make sure that at least three of these varieties are plucked and blended together. Blending starts right from the farm. That’s why you hear about farm blending”, he explained.
Tea harvesting
Tea harvest is done both manually and mechanically. In Mambilla Estate, although there is a tea harvesting machine but the manual method is mostly adopted given its advantages.
Explaining the reason for using the manual method, Bonchat said it allows the tea plants to grow back faster thereby enhancing a quicker plucking cycle compared to the mechanized harvesting which takes longer before the tea plants grow back.
The tea leaves are usually plucked or harvested by hand into specially designed baskets under the strict condition of ‘two buds and a leaf’ to guarantee quality tea production or output at the end of the day.
Over 800 workers are said to be currently engaged in the Mambilla Tea Estate.