Design & Development of a tea harvesting machine

The Indian tea industry is one of the major foreign revenue earners for the country.It is one of the major employers of women. Many of the activities, especially the tea-leaf plucking activity (constituting 40 percent of the total cost of production of tea leaves) performed by the women workers.The tea industries of Assam, in are facing revenue losses during recent times. One of the main factors is shortage of workforce engaged in field operations. Studies have shown that acute shortage of workforce takes place in the tea plucking activities during peak season due to various socio-economic reasons. Due to the manpower shortage, a considerable quantity of available tea leaves for tea making remains unplucked. This directly affects the overall production of made tea and hence on the revenue earnings by the tea gardens. In this scenario, the only suitable solution to the problem appears to be the adaptation of mechanised harvesting.The purpose of this research is to formulate a solution for mechanised harvesting which should be economical and suitable for tea gardens of Assam.