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The tea growers in Sylhet have put in extra efforts to boost their production required for meeting the fast rising demand for the item with the government pursuing pro-growth policy measures.
Most growers in Sylhel - the country's highest tea growing zone -- have already started to bring their unused lands under tea plantation following the governmnet's recent policy steps, tea garden operators said.
The government has set a provision that the tea garden owners have to cultivate at least 25 per cent of their unused land each year with a view to boosting the country's tea output, they said.
"The latest official provision has forced the local tea growers to cultivate their unused land. It will ultimately help raise the country's overall tea output," said Efzal Ahmed Chowdhury, Manager of Habibnagar Tea Estate in Sylhet.
The authority made such provision after it found that large areas of land under many tea gardens remained idle for years, putting a break to the growth of local tea production.
As much as 50 per cent of total potential lands under many tea gardens still remain unplanted, according to unofficial sources.
Such policy measures came into force as the local tea output fails to keep pace with its ever-growing demand - both for internal consumption and export, according to sources.
The country's tea output grew at the rate of nearly 1.5 per cent per year over the decades while its internal consumption increased by about 3.5 per cent per annum.
As a result, the country would have little scope to export tea in the global market in the near future, operators and officials observed.
They, however, feared that such a robust increase in the domestic consumption would lead the country to go for import of the commodity in future.
There are some 160 tea gardens in the country and they are able to produce 50 to 55 million kilogrammes (kgs) of tea annually, according to official figures.
Bangladesh is able to export about 20 million kgs of tea per annum though the volume of export marked a declining trend over the years due to the increased internal consumption.
Currently, the country contributes around two per cent to the global tea production having a three per cent share in the export market, according to a source.
The per hectare tea output is much lower in Bangladesh than those of other producing countries, including India and Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Such a poor yield is mainly because of the country's tea gardens are more than 100 years of olds.
Taking this problem into account, the owners of those tea gardens have started switching over from traditional crops to high yielding clone tea for enhancing production, Efzal said.
Per hectare yield of clone tea is several times higher those that of traditional crops, he noted.
Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI) has so far developed a total of 17 improved varieties of tea for local growers, he said.
Apart from those, the tea growers also cultivate some 33 Tklai varieties of Indian crops in their gardens, he noted.
Responding to a query, Efzal said the country experienced a good tea harvest in 2005 due to a favourable climate.
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