Plus

Books

A passage through tea science
Twentieth Century Tea Research in Sri Lanka (1925-2000). Reviewed by Dyan Seneviratne.
Tea and Ceylon have forged an unbroken partnership of 137 plus years, destined to outstrip even Wisden's records! In cementing this symbiotic relationship, Sri Lanka has looked to the dedicated professionalism of 'tea-research'.

In 1925, 58 years after that Scotsman-turned Hewaheta planter, proto-scientist James Taylor commenced the commercial growing of tea in a 19-acre field of Loolecondera estate in 1867, the island's tea ballooned to more than 300,000 acres and the need for scientific professionalism and its accompanying scientific ideas was felt for further progress. Thus the Tea Research Institute was born, providing yeoman service to the tea industry.

Seventy-five years on, The Tea Research Institute has faced the many vicissitudes associated with a wizened senior whilst accomplishing numerous, trail-blazing 'firsts' that many scientific institutes germane to tea across the globe have followed or replicated.

Twentieth Century Tea Research in Sri Lanka, edited by Prof. W.W.D. Modder, a former Director (1996-2002) of TRI, is a 450-page volume of infinite value, divided into three sections, Divisional Reviews, Technical Articles and Reviews and General Articles.

Organized
The Editorial foreword by Modder succinctly summarizes the volume into 9 sections and 8 sub sections. Leafing through them makes the reader, whether planter or tea aficionado, eager to devour the rest of its contents!

A few editorial 'gems' of Dr. Modder's foreword are worth reproducing: The Institute: an Unshakable Foundation... "It is clear that Ceylon Tea would not have retained, and cannot in the future retain, its premier position and competitive edge in the face of unrelenting, exponential advances in science, agriculture and technology, without the constantly-updated expertise and ministrations of professional tea scientists and extensionists..." "Just a few years after its establishment, the Institute earned a reputation among tea growers and scientists around the world. It acquired an enviable sobriquet: the Mecca of tea science.

Achievements
Dr. Modder details the significant achievements made by the TRI which are amplified in the main section of the volume in numerous chapters. Notable achievements among these include: The Seminal Eden Fertilizer Trail: This experiment and many others elsewhere in the tea districts for which it was the precursor, have resulted in recommendations on the balanced use of fertilizer mixtures our tea growers have been using since the 1940s. Today, tea planters take for granted NPK Mixtures, originally formulated by the Tea Research Institute.

Biological Control of Tortrix: "Tea inherited a serious pest, the tea tortrix moth Homona Coffearia, from coffee. Until the late 1930s, it ravaged tea plantations particularly in the up country. In 1936, the Institute made releases at St. Coombs of an exotic wasp, Macrocentrus Homonae, that destroys the Tortix caterpillars." All tea planters should be grateful to the TRI for introducing biological control that has reduced the once problematic Tea Tortix which devastated large tracts of tea lands in 1939, to just only a minor irritant today. This volume details the full history behind the saga of the Tea Tortix.

Blister Blight Control: By the 1940s Blister Blight was a serious threat. However by 1950 the TRI had shown that spraying copper fungicides gave protection against the disease. This finding "prevented an economic disaster similar to large-scale collapse of coffee".

Introduction of Vegetative Propagation: From relatively low yields associated with tea from seed, experiments commencing from the early 1940s saw the TRI made significant progress in introducing an economical method for the vegetative propagation of tea plants with a view toward significant increases in tea yields. Thus the TRI was responsible for cultivars of TRI 2000 series and to the 3000, 4000 and 5000 clones.

Clean slate
In Chapter One of Twentieth Century Tea Research, Mr. S. Wimaladharma of the Advisory & Extension Services Division of TRI details the progress of the Institute from its humble beginnings in 1925 to its current status during the past 75 years in seven well written paragraphs under the main headings: The Beginnings of Ceylon Tea; Early Research on Tea and Other Crops: Tea Research Institute - Early Days; Institute's Main & Regional Stations; Institute's Advisory & Extension Service etc. amongst others.

As a tea planter for more than three decades, I was particularly impressed with Chapter 16: ‘The Importance of Ground Cover Management in Tea’ by Mr. P.B. Ekanayake of the Agronomy Division. His introductory remarks: "Effective ground cover not only protects the soil from the hazards of weather such as soil erosion caused by rain, but also minimizes evaporation and hence conserves soil moisture. In addition, covers also suppress weed growth." How true! This chapter is a must read for all planters.

Pest control
The low-country live-wood termite and yield decline of colonel tea in Sri Lanka are dealt with extensively and professionally by the Entomology Division headed by a name which is today synonymous with tea pests and entomology - Ms. Sushila Vitarana. Planters affected by the ravages of the low country termite must read this chapter as the contributory mechanisms towards plant resistance to insect pests are reviewed and host-plant relationship and measures adopted for control of pests are discussed amongst many other issues.

Ms. Vitarana, Head of the Entomology Division epitomizes her attention to detail by tracing 75 years of Research in Tea Entomology, Acarology and Nematology. We learn that Entomology was amongst the first three research disciplines of the Institute at its establishment in 1925 and that all insects, mites, nematodes, leeches and molluscs were included in the Entomology Division.

ISO analysis of made tea from all major tea producing countries have revealed that Sri Lankan teas are "the cleanest in the world" as far as pesticide residues are concerned. The credit for this accolade must go to the enlightened policy of the Institute which de-emphasizes the use of hazardous agro-chemicals, to its pest-control scientists who have over the years studied substitutes for persistent chemical pesticides and of course the Sri Lankan tea growers who have followed the TRI's recommendations.

With the current burgeoning demand with the 'organic tag' for virtually most agricultural products, especially from the cash-rich, health conscious developed world, Chapter 15 deals with just that - organic tea under the caption ‘Future Prospects for Growing Organic Tea in Sri Lanka’ discussed by authors A.K.N. Zoysa and P.S.M. Munasinghe of TRI's Soils & Plant Nutrient Division.

Processes
Organic tea growing is the part of sustainable tea cultivation that stems from an appreciation of nature. It is a system based on the ''dynamic interaction between the environment, soil, plants, animals and human beings". It is mandatory reading for those under the delusion that 'organic' tea cultivation could be achieved overnight merely by withholding inorganic chemical inputs!

Chapters 11 & 19 titled: ‘Tea Processing Techno-logy’ and ‘Studies and Opinions on Up-Country Manufacture’ are expertly handled and headed by Dr. M.T. Ziyad Mohamed, presently Director of The Tea Research Institute. These are chapters of much significance as they deal with the entire gamut of green leaf to black tea process under the enthralling headings: Green Leaf Standard; Black tea processing; withering; energy for withering; errors in withering; rolling; errors in orthodox rolling; rotor vanes; rolling using LTP/CTC; roll breaking; fermentation and an absorbing revelation on "the effects of heat from rolling on fermentation"; The relation between Quality and Polyphony content of clones; the effects of non-enzymix and enzymic oxidation; fermentation rates and clonel categorization; Drying; fuel and heat exchangers; dual-fuel heaters; direct firing; wood gasifires; coir-dust briquettes as fuel; drying with solar energy as the TRI is presently focused on environmentally-friendly, energy-efficient renewable alternatives - even drying with microwave energy!

On page 361 Dr. M.T. Ziyad Mohamed and D.L.D.H. Dahanayake argue the case for Rotorvanes, concluding that the 'normal' periods of fermentation, given to orthodox dhools are equally suitable for rotorvane dhools at high elevations where quality is the main consideration. They report that flavour can be developed in rotorvane teas "to a similar or even greater extent, as in orthodox teas, provided the correct conditions are given".

Chapter 21 to 27 deal with some absorbing essays under the Section 'General Articles'. My friend B. Sivaram, the Indian tea scientist who created a niche for himself as a prolific, knowledgeable writer deals with the man 'who made it happen': JT - ‘Remembering James Taylor’. Sivaram, sadly is no longer with us, having met with an untimely death in November 2001.

The 'first hand' paper by Lambert Perera on ‘The discovery of the Tea Clone, DT 1’ manifests the enthusiasm and dogged pursuit of excellence displayed by an earlier generation of planters in 1941. The tragedy is that in the midst of a vast reservoir of genetic talent, with around 70% of tea lands still in seedling tea, we have not unearthed similar 'estate super clones' during the past 50 years or so, apart from the TRI sponsored 3000, 4000 & 5000 series.

Another colleague, Neville Athukorale reflects on his 'Uva days' and the absolute importance of thatching - he claims with documentary evidence how a yield increase of 1000kg/ha was achieved by thatching whilst attending to usual TRI agronomic practices.

Traditions
The late Kolitha Ratnayake, a former General Manager of JEDB and proprietor planter, shares with us how the Ratnayake family were amongst the ‘first few natives to turn from citronella to coffee and thence to tea’.

Chapter 25: ‘Diversity: The Hallmark of Ceylon Tea’ by Maxwell Fernando is a masterpiece! His profound knowledge of the geography and topography of the island - the ranges, peaks and basins takes the reader aloft all the major peaks of the Central and Uva mountain ranges and then to the tea districts of Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Kandy, Galle, Matara and Ratnapura.

Does anyone know who 'invented' the ‘meal’ called tea? Let me quote Maxwell Fernando: "Many social changes were taking place in England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The fashionable hour for dinner was being delayed. It is said that Pepys, the gossipy English diarist and Secretary to the British Admiralty, dined at noon whilst the Pope was still at table at four p.m. The gap between breakfast and dinner began to widen and it was the Duchess of Bedford who invented the ‘meal’ called tea."

Maxwell Fernando concludes his Chapter 25, pages 393 to 409 of sheer poetry, history, geography and absolute entertainment plus his role as an undisguised tea aficionado. “Tea is the most important single industry in the country, going by almost every economic measure and remains a major foreign-exchange earner, directly contributing an appreciable percentage of the gross national product. Ceylon tea is however not a single product but a range of teas of great diversity.”

And last but not least, ‘Men Who Directed Research at the TRI’ by Ms. Vitarana, commencing from Mr. T. Petch to Dr. Modder, thanks to whom we have this impressive volume of the first 75 years of the TRI.

Back to Plus