socialmedian: Tea farmers struggle for survival in fields of gold

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Tea farmers struggle for survival in fields of gold

Source: The Guardian

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

Soaring demand for food and land may not stop the world's rural communities from plunging deeper into poverty

The villagers of Thatarber Manihatty in south India knew they had no choice but to mortgage their small plots of farmland when they found they could not afford to bury dead relatives or send children to school without the generosity of neighbours.

Six thousand feet up in the breathtaking Nilgiri hills of Tamil Nadu, hope was thin on the ground until Sumani Subramani, a 30-year-old former office clerk, drew a line in the brick-red soil.

Quitting her desk job, Subramani organised the farmers into a co-operative. Banding together, they first negotiated better prices from local tea processing factories. Then, pooling meagre profits from plucking leaves on the steep hills, the new co-op collected 20,000 rupees (£260) a month and, plot by plot, began to reclaim land from the banks.

"For 10 years we suffered because of low prices, and money makers took our land and we have to pay interest to them," Subramani explains. "So women got together to form a group and w

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