Resumen de Trouble is brewing for Assam tea
Cousins examines the trouble brewing in the plantations of Assam, the world's largest tea-growing region, famous for its strong "breakfast" tea. Assam has a hot, humid climate with temperatures already at the upper end of the optimum range for tea growing. As the climate warms, the tea crops here come under ever greater stress. This is compounded by changing rainfall patterns. Too little rain forces planters to use expensive sprinklers or irrigation pipes to get better yields. The drier climate is also more conducive to pests such as the tea mosquito bug. These invaders eat the foliage and make plants more vulnerable to disease, lowering the yield. The use of pesticides and fertilizers has gone up in turn, increasing both production costs and health risks.
