Environment

Tea research responding to climate change

The effects of climate change have not left out the tea industry, Malawi’s third forex earner. Unreliable rains have drained reservoirs which the industry uses to tap water for irrigation; as such, new forms of drought-resistant seeds are needed for adaptation.

This is why the Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa (TRFCA) held a field day last week to unveil some of the new developments in tea research which are responding to emerging environmental and social realities.

Held under the theme “Researching for adapting to ever-changing climatic and socioeconomic tea production challenges”, the day saw TRFCA unveiling to players in the tea sectors new seeds, technically called cultivars, which adapt to the changing climate.

“The challenge with tea industry is that once you plant, it is something that you will have for close to 50 years on the field. This means, if you make a mistake today, it will cost your business, or the industry at large, a great deal of time and money. So, we were very cautious,” says Dr Albert Changaya, director of TRFCA.

Among the cultivars introduced to different players in the tea sectors drawn from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, includes PC168, PC 185, PC 198 and PC213. According to Changaya, the cultivars have been developed to kill three birds with one stone.

“They are drought-resistant, they are of high quality and they don’t easily fall prey to pests. There are a number of other cultivars, too, which we will be unveiling soon. We want to flood the market with nothing but the best,” he says.

TRFCA was formed in 1966 by tea growers to develop new tea technologies with the goal of sustaining a viable tea industry while maintaining the environment.

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