Ever since I had assumed new responsibility at NTCDB Jhapa, I have been covertly meeting people who have been contributing to the sector either vehemently or silently. Besides acknowledging their contribution to the industry, the purpose of such visits was to listen to them and get insights on the development of the sector.
The man you see alongside me is Mr Nirananda Acharya, Manager of Kanchanjunga Tea Estate & Research Center (KTERC), Panchthar. While almost all of the tea industry in the country were – and still are – managed by people hired from Darjeeling, he was the only Manager produced in Nepalese soil. However, expecting no limelight, he remained in the oblivion and kept on putting his efforts on promoting organic Tea production. Needless to say, Kanchanjunga Tea is one of the pioneer of Organic Tea in Nepal.
Everytime I meet him, I receive a different sort of aura and energy from him. This time I met him at Maharshi Vedic Institute, Champadevi, as he was on a leave for a six-month training on the ancient Vedic culture. This time again he didn’t fail to inspire me.
While organic practice is being the mainstream of tea industry in the hills of Nepal, Mr. Acharya is preparing to take it to an another level by adopting agriculture practices based on Vedic culture and principles. Although it sounds like it has something to do with Hinduism – as a religion, the approach is universal, holistic and based on the Law of Nature.
Nature itself is the true farmer in a Vedic agriculture system because all of the laws of nature functioning in an eco-system are upheld and sustained. It does not conflict with any existing system of agriculture; rather it supports all the systems, as they are practiced locally in accord with the local conditions of climate and geography.
While it may take few years or even decades to adopt the Vedic agriculture in Tea, I was convinced that if we care for the planet and our future generations, we need to have faith on the approaches suggested by our ancient scientists.
All the best to Mr Acharya and his team for his mission on “Going Back to the Nature”.
