Contract plucking, in which workers are given the responsibility of managing plots of land, commenced on a small scale in the year 2,000 at Endane Estate, largely in response to the acute labour shortage faced by the company.
While 900 to 1,100 workers were required to manage the over 450 hectares of tea cultivated land at the time, only 400 to 500 workers were available.
Due to the worker shortage, the estate was unable to fully utilize valuable tea growing land and harvest available leaf at the appropriate time and had to face encroachment attempts by villagers into uncultivated land in addition to crop and financial losses.
Kahawatte Plantations thus introduced the contract plucking method on its ‘Delwala’ Division, according to which workers were designated to manage specific plots of tea cultivation.
On the days on which the workers were not allocated work on land managed directly by the company, they were able to work on the designated plots.
The company purchases leaves plucked by the workers at 64% of the ‘bought leaf’ rate, with the deduction being made in order to recover the cost of inputs provided at the company’s expense such as fertilizer etc.
However, many key inputs and knowledge of good agricultural practices etc. are provided free by the company.
In addition to the wages paid by the company for their regular work, families with two or three members engaged in contract plucking now earn up to an additional Rs. 18,000 a month from this activity alone during the high cropping season.
Endane Estate on the other hand has minimised issues associated with the labour shortage and is able to harvest maximum crop by using this method, thus offering a mutually beneficial solution.
Numerous other benefits, including greater worker motivation arising from the feeling of managing a plot of land on one’s own has led to management and workers alike advocating the use of the model.
Poonaswamy, a worker engaged in contract plucking since 2,000 at Endane Estate, reveals that he was able to meet medical expenses of one of his children who fell ill, amounting to several lakhs, entirely from the income earned through contract plucking.
Kanapathy and Wijeykumar, workers who have been engaged in contract plucking at Endane for long periods also expressed their approval of the contract plucking method.
“Now we can spend money on children’s schooling expenses and to buy things for the household since we know that we can get a substantial additional income through contract plucking,” Wijeykumar said.
Being able to earn an additional income within the estate itself, without having to travel outside for extra work, is a relief, Kanapathy said.
The initial success of contract plucking led to greater adoption of the model within Endane Estate in 2002 and elsewhere thereafter.
Now approximately one third (37%) of the cultivated tea land at Endane Estate is managed via the contract plucking method and 322 workers of the estate manage contractual blocks.
Seven to eight other estates managed by Kahawatte Plantations are also making use of the model.
Several other Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) too have adopted the system and many leading figures in the plantation sector have commented that the model has the potential to address many key issues plaguing the system, including high labour costs and labour shortages.
