Tea Farming in Bangladesh Rozina’s Story Tea Farming in Bangladesh

Rozina lives with her family in Tetulia, Bangladesh Rozina lives with her family in Tetulia, Bangladesh. Rozina liked with her husband (Soleman), her son (Abdur), her daughter (Sumaiya), and her mother-in-law (Kulshum). Life used to be very hard for Rozina. The family lived in great poverty, had very little to eat, and they lived in a small bamboo hut which didn’t keep out the rain or wind. Rozina: ‘There were no beds and we kept freezing on the mud floor. In the rainy season we got wet sitting inside our only shelter and all of us remained quiet about that situation. Our dream was limited to eating something good like vegetables instead of rice and salt.’

Tea Leaves Rozina and her husband started working as labourers in order to be able to feed their family, but unfortunately this work is very poorly paid. Rozina: ‘Both my husband and I started working as labourers in tea gardens. Together we could earn 100-130 taka a day. We got to know that there is huge profit in tea planting. Then I heard about Traidcraft.’ Help came when Traidcraft worked with Rozina to grow tea on her land. Traidcraft is a development charity which helps people in the developing world work their way out of poverty via trade. Traidcraft work directly with smallholder farmers to develop their skills in managing their land and growing techniques. This means that the farmers can use these skills and even teach other farmers in their area to use them too.

Traidcraft helped Rozina and her family to turn her land into a tea garden. Rozina: ‘My husband and I decided to use our fallow land for growing tea plants. Our soil is very good for tea planting. If we can dedicate 1-1.5 years of growing tea in the garden, it will give us leaves for 80-100 years. I received six training sessions from Traidcraft. The wheel of our life then started turning.’ Traidcraft taught the family how to plant and nurture tea, and how to best manage their land. Rozina’s Tea Garden

What is a smallholder farmer? (See if anyone can guess first). Small holder farmers are farmers that hold only a small amount of land. They grow enough food for themselves and then sell the surplus to people in their local communities. Often the small holder farmers provide the most food for their communities, so they are very important in the fight against hunger. The farmers with large amounts of land often sell their food to big companies or send it overseas, so local people remain hungry. There are around half a billion smallholder farmers across the world. Rozina: ‘After 1.5 years we are now able to see the face of happiness. Now we have electricity. We built a house for 30 thousand taka and we built a kitchen. I have hens and ducks and five cows. Everything has changed miraculously. The tea plant is a miracle in our life. Now we have beds to sleep in. My mother-in- law has a separate room and I made furniture for the house. I bought a tea pot and nicely decorated the room.’

Rozina Here is Rozina in her tea garden. Bangladesh tea is grown in the northern and eastern districts of the country. The highlands, temperate climate, humidity and heavy rainfall in these districts provide the best conditions for the production of high-quality tea. Rozina

Rozina now has the money to feed her family Rozina now has the money to feed her family. She has bought hens, ducks, and cows, and also grows gourds and other vegetables to eat.

My husband and I decided to use our fallow land for growing tea plants My husband and I decided to use our fallow land for growing tea plants. Our soil is very good for tea planting.’ Rozina: ‘I have a lot of dreams for the future. We have to fulfill the educational needs of our children. Now people look at me with respect.’ Rozina can afford to send her children to school, something she never had the opportunity to do herself. Rozina: ‘I want to educate my children and believe one day they will come forward to change the hope of the hopeless.’

Rozina is now a pillar of the community, and has been elected as a member of her local small tea growers association. Rozina: ‘My self-esteem and willpower have multiplied many times now. I am confident about my success and aspire to do more. I am one of the elected women members of our small tea growers association. I not only dream about myself or my family, I also think about my locality for my community. I want more people to be self-sufficient so no one goes to sleep with an empty stomach. Now people look at me with respect. They say though I had neither education nor experience I become one of their heroes. That makes me very proud. And this makes me responsible for them too. My dream has come true, poverty has to be defeated.’

Happiness You can support smallholder farmers like Rozina by buying Traidcraft tea, and by fundraising for Traiddcraft’s development work. There are still lots of farmers out there to help! You could: Start a Traidcraft tuck shop, stock Traidcraft snacks in the staffroom, offer Traidcraft coffee and tea to parents, do some fundraising for Traidcraft’s development work, start a fair trade student group… The list is endless! Let’s get started!