Ancient wisdom
Arijit Bhuyan worked with the tea major, Williamson Magor, in Assam for 25 years before buying land and planting his own garden in 2000. Situated on 28 hectare (ha) near Silonijan in Karbi Anglong district of Assam, Bogamati Tea Estate has about 13 ha under tea. Arijit has also planted lemon grass, vanilla and Kaempferia galanga on his property.
After trying out various organic methods, Arijit has finally settled for vriksayurveda (written by Surapala, it is a 1,000-year-old Sanskrit treatise on agriculture describing various methods for enriching the fertility of the soil, increasing crop production and controlling diseases and pests) which he feels is among the easiest, cheapest and the quickest methods he has come across so far. Liquid organic manures like kunapa jal and sasyagavya are being used for cultivation. The labour on the garden is drawn from the tea tribes.
The green leaf is sold to a tea factory at present.Arijit has plans to have his own processing unit soon and produce orthodox, green and hand rolled teas like