Jhapa Company Cultivates Tea and Areca Nut Together

Jhapa. Tea and areca nut, major cash crops with good markets and high economic potential, have been cultivated separately in Jhapa. However, a company here has started a new practice by cultivating both crops together on the same land.

Hadiya Real Tea Estate, operating in Bhadrapur Municipality Wards 8 and 9, has simultaneously advanced commercial cultivation of tea and areca nut on 60 bighas of land. Estate operator Bhakti Adhikari informed that mixed cultivation has been started as the climate and soil requirements for tea and areca nut are very similar.

"The tall areca nut trees provide light shade needed for the tea bushes," he said. "From this, double benefits of both tea and areca nut can be obtained from the same garden and with the same investment." This is the first time any commercial company in Jhapa has institutionally cultivated both these crops together as intercrops.

Tea saplings were planted in the said garden about a decade ago and production began, while areca nut saplings were added only three years ago. Currently, 60,000 areca nut plants are growing on 60 bighas of land. He stated that while tea is continuously producing, areca nut will start yielding only after four more years.

The company has already invested an additional Rs 10 million for expanding areca nut within the tea garden. The company plans to expand areca nut cultivation as intercropping within the total 102 bighas of tea garden in the coming days.

"Tea was already in our garden," Adhikari said, sharing his experience of mixed cultivation. "I got this idea after seeing areca nut plants growing within tea gardens during a visit to Assam, India. We brought high-quality areca nut seeds from Assam and prepared saplings in our own nursery. These plants are now three years old."

Both these crops, historically introduced to Nepal from India, have India as their main export market. Currently, tea cultivation has spread over more than 21,000 hectares in 31 districts of Nepal, while areca nut cultivation is mainly in about 4,000 hectares in Kosi Province, including Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Udaypur, and Ilam.

Jhapa district alone accounts for more than two-thirds of the country's total areca nut production and area, hence it is also called the 'Areca Nut Capital'. Areca nut cultivation is done on about three thousand hectares in the district. Mechinagar and Arjundhara municipalities and Buddhashanti rural municipality of Jhapa are the main centers of areca nut production, where local farmers have been cultivating it traditionally.

In recent times, excellent practices of obtaining multidimensional benefits from the same land by intercropping shade-loving crops like tea, chili, cardamom, and banana have been adopted in Jhapa. Leading farmer Ravi Nepal of Mechinagar Municipality-4 has already been earning a good income from such mixed farming on a personal level.

Hadiya Real Tea Estate has taken the first risk of investing heavily on a commercial scale to cultivate tea and areca nut together. As the areca nut plants in the garden gradually grow, trees like Siris planted earlier for shade have been removed. The company has stated that special technicians and laborers have also been mobilized for the separate care, weeding, and manuring of the areca nut cultivation.

If Hadiya Estate's mixed cultivation model is successful, it will open new doors for expanding areca nut cultivation in other large tea gardens in the district. Following this example, Banshal Tea Estate in Mechinagar Municipality-15 has also started planting areca nut saplings within its tea garden on a trial basis.