Dhubri: An old pressure cooker, a household mixer-grinder and a farmer’s ingenuity have come together in an unusual experiment in tea processing in Assam.
Ratan Ray, a 51-year-old farmer from Choibari, Hindupara in Dhubri district, has improvised a tea-processing machine from everyday household appliances, seeking to overcome one of the challenges faced by small tea growers — the high cost of specialised machinery.
With 25 years of experience in tea cultivation, Ray understood the difficulties of processing tea without access to expensive equipment. His solution was to repurpose an old pressure cooker and connect it to the motor of a regular mixer-grinder, fitting specially designed metal blades inside the cooker.
The improvised machine can crush, tear and curl tea leaves into small pellets, replicating key stages of the Crush, Tear and Curl (CTC) method widely used in tea manufacturing.
The innovation could offer a low-cost option for small growers who struggle to invest in dedicated processing machinery. By mechanising part of the process, Ray’s device reduces reliance on traditional manual rolling and helps speed up processing.
Ray says the tea produced using his machine has a stronger flavour and brews faster — qualities sought by local consumers who prefer CTC tea.
The experiment also points to the scope for farmers to develop practical, affordable technologies by adapting equipment already available to them. Similar approaches could potentially be explored for processing spices, herbs and other agricultural produce, opening up opportunities for value addition at the farm level.
The innovation has been documented by Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Dhubri, which has supported its dissemination through agricultural extension activities.
For small tea growers, the broader question is whether such improvised equipment can be developed into a reliable and scalable alternative to conventional machinery. Its processing capacity, product quality, safety and operating costs would need to be assessed before wider adoption.
Ray’s experiment nevertheless highlights how farmers’ practical experience can lead to resourceful solutions to problems encountered in the field.