TRI Scientists receive first place in National Awards for Excellence in Agricultural Research 2017
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FAO-IGG Inter-sessional Meeting
The FAO-IGG inter-sessional meeting was held during August 12-13, 2017 at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo Hotel with the participation of a large number of foreign delegates representing tea growing and consuming countries.
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TRI Participates at the CRT Trade Fair & Exhibition
The CRT exhibition was held at the BMICH during August 11-13, 2017...
Celebrate 150 years of Ceylon Tea – Tea Party
World’s ever longest Tea Party organized by Sri Lanka held on 06 July 2017. While many countries from east to west across the world celebrated at 5.00 pm Sri Lanka time in every time zone and the local event was at Galle Face Hotel, Colombo. This celebration was organized b...
More >>Visit of Honorable Vice Minister of Agriculture of China
Honorable Vice Minister of Agriculture of China Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka on 04 May 2017....
TRI participates in the national exhibition at the BMICH
The Tea Research Institute participated in the national exhibition........
More >>Visit of His Excellency President Maithripala Sirisena
His Excellency President Maithripala
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High quality St. Coombs tea
It is time to order the best tea you have ever tasted.
High grown factory fresh unblended St. Coombs tea is available at the St. Coombs Tea Centre....
St Coombs achieved all time record price
St Coombs achieved all time record price...........
More >>Climate Change
Report on climate changevulnerability and adaptation strategies for
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Tea Research outshines at the Sixth Symposium on Plantation Crop Research
The sixth Symposium on Plantation Crop Research was successfully held at the BMICH during November 3-4, 2016. The theme of the symposium was “Plantation Agriculture t...
More >>Report on climate change vulnerability and adaptation strategies for tea plantations released
A comprehensive report on the impacts of climate change, vulnerability and adaptation strategies for the tea sector in Sri Lanka .....
More >>Low Country Regional Centre & St. Joachim Tea Factory Celebrated 50 years of Services
The TRI Low country Regional Centre and St. Joachim factory celebrated their Golden Jubilee in 2014. Commemorating the Golden Jubilee, a series of events viz. an “Open Day” for stakeholders, felicitation of retired officers with long years of service and religious ...
More >>National project launched for popularizing the use of machines in tea smallholdings sector
Launching the national project for popularizing the use of machineries in tea smallholdings, the Minister of Plantation Industries, Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe handed over 21 million Rupees worth of machines and equipment to 50 societies of tea smallholders and 25 bought leaf t...
More >>Corporate Plan 2013-17
The third revision of the Corporate Plan of the TRISL is now prepared. It embodies the vision of the management, a commitment of its senior managers by way of its mission and of all those involved in making realistic goals and objectives....
More >>National project launched for popularizing the use of machines in
tea smallholdings sector
Launching the national project for popularizing the use of machineries in tea smallholdings, the Minister of Plantation Industries, Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe handed over 21 million Rupees worth of machines and equipment to 50 societies of tea smallholders and 25 bought leaf tea factories providing extension services at the auditorium of the Rubber Research Institute, Dartonfield, Agalawatta on 20th May 2014. The Rs.100 million project is jointly implemented by the Tea Research Institute and Tea Small Holdings Development Authority (TSHDA) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Tea Board, Sri Lanka Federation of Tea Smallholdings Development Societies and Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners Association under the guidance of the Ministry of Plantation Industries.
Rationale
Labour scarcity is one of the crucial factors that determine the profitability of tea plantations. Presently, the Sri Lankan tea industry faces shortage of skilled labour for routine field operations. The most labour intensive field operation i.e. tea harvesting requires 60-70% of the daily labour out-turn contributing to 30-40% of total cost of production. Lack of skilled labour for harvesting of tea not only reduces yield but it also adversely affect quality of made tea. Additionally, pruning and holing operations are also considered to be labour intensive field practices. Considering the long term sustainability of the tea industry and alarming situation of labour scarcity, the Tea Research Institute proposed this project in 2012 targeting the tea smallholdings sector who contributes to around 70% of the national tea production.
Objectives
The objectives of the project were four-fold. Popularization of mechanical devices for harvesting, pruning and holing, training of small holders on the proper use of mechanical devices, attract and retain youth in the industry and design, test and fabricate light-weight and user friendly harvesting machine suitable for tea plantations in Sri Lanka.
Activities
Initial awareness programs were held to discuss plans and disseminate knowledge on benefits of mechanization among the small holders (society members), factory owners and regional extension officers of tea related organizations. The enthusiastic smallholders selected by the societies and factories were trained as machine operators and trainers at the Tea Research Institute, Low country Regional Centre, Ratnapura during two-day residential Training of Trainers (TOT) sessions. Most suitable machines presently available in the local and international market were selected and procured for distribution after field testing. Regional training and awareness programs are carried out by the recipient societies and factories under the guidance of TSHDA and Tea Board officials to train other users. Overall success of the project will be assessed through a comprehensive survey planned to be undertaken by the implementing organizations in the near future when the machines are in operation.
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Para Extension Approach (PEA) for the Corporate Tea Sector: A Novel Approach to empower field staff and workers of tea estates with agricultural knowledge and technologies
Previous adoption studies revealed that there is wide agricultural knowledge gap in the supervisory and worker level employees of corporate sector tea estates which is a bottleneck to successful implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) at field level. Considering the urgency of bridging this knowledge gap, TRI is pleased to introduce Para Extension Approach (PEA) as a feasible way out.
Under this approach, qualified Field Officers/Asst Field Officers/Welfare Officers/EMAs of estates are regularly trained on most needed subject areas by the TRI to develop them as Para Trainers who in turn are expected train their juniors, estate worker groups with TRIs assistance. The training will cover not only tea related technical subjects but also subjects related to human productivity such as health, nutrition, attitude change etc. This approach has been tried out on a pilot scale in few estates and found to be effective in the following aspects;
- Improving accessibility to agricultural knowledge related information on GAPs and improved agric technologies in supervisory and worker level plantation employees
- Improving efficiency of training the plantation workers
- Developing positive attitude of field staff and workers towards their job and implementation of GAPs
- Improving work standard & output and standard of work attendance to work etc.
TRI is now pleased to introduce Para Extension Approach to RPCs as collaborative projects and interested RPCs are requested to inform the Director/TRI in order to initiate work. For more details on Para Extension Approach, you may contact Dr. V S Sidhakaran/Project Leader (Para Extension) via email vsidha@yahoo.com.