Tea is the most popular beverage after water. African nations like Kenya, Burundi, Malawi & Rwanda are well known for their coloury, strong CTC Black teas. But in the recent past, these nations have started to change their focus towards Orthodox teas in order to improve profitability. CTC Teas from Malawi are reddish once it’s liquored & international buyers use Malawian teas for their blends as colour component. Strength & flavour are also quite good. Tea is one of the main 3 contributors to national GDP through export earnings in Malawi.

But this news is not a very good one. As Future Climate for Africa had reported, The recent heatwave in Malawi has led to consecutive days with very high temperatures. This is exactly the scenario that tea farmer are afraid of. Over the last 18 months, Future Climate for Africa‘s work with smallholder farmers and large-scale tea planters in the southern districts of Mulanje and Thyolo identified the risk of heat scorch to tea bushes as a major concern.

The Mimosa weather station (in Mulanje) recorded temperatures exceeding 35°C, and as high as 40°C, during a 10 day period in late October. The result of the heatwave has been that the leaves of tea bushes – which are what is harvested – turned brown and shriveled.

This occurrence will become more common in the future. Whilst currently there are around 40 days per year with temperatures exceeding 35°C, this is likely to become 50 to 100 days by the 2050s in Mulanje. 

There are 18,500 smallholder farmers alone, and many more employed as seasonal farm workers or tea pickers. 

Smallholder farmers, commercial tea estates, and the Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa have been working with scientists from the CI4Tea project (as part of the Future Climate For Africa programme) to better understand and communicate what the future climate could look like, and assist tea farmers think about the adaptation decisions that they need to take.

My Suggestions for Growers to Overcome This Situation

1.Improve Micro-climate of Tea Gardens

a. Maintain the tea garden as an agro-forest: grow shade trees, cover crops, inter-cropping, live fences etc.

b. Create water reserves likes small tanks to bring down temperature.

2. Use drought tolerant tea varieties

3. Utilize suitable irrigation systems: Drip, Sprinkler etc.

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References

1. Original Post: https://futureclimateafrica.org/news/malawi-heatwaves-threaten-tea-yields-and-livelihoods/
2. African Tea: http://www.teawithnipun.com/tag/african-tea/