The Small Growers Who Make Half Your Assam Just Got a Farmer ID
Assam has added tea and plantation land to its Farmers' Registry, letting 1.33 lakh (133,000) small tea growers get a Farmer ID that links their identity to their land and opens the door to formal credit, fertiliser and crop insurance.
Close to half of Assam's tea now has a name and a plot attached to it. The state government has added tea and plantation-class land to its Farmers' Registry Portal, letting a smallholder obtain a unique Farmer ID that ties identity to land record for the first time.
As of March 31, 2025, the state counted 1,33,864 small tea growers working 1,26,107.64 hectares (about 312,000 acres), the government said. Together they supply nearly half of Assam's green leaf, the raw crop the big factories buy in and turn into made tea. Most had stood outside the formal farm system. A Farmer ID closes that gap.
"Today marks a historic day for the lakhs of small tea growers in Assam," Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. "Tea and plantation class land holdings are now included in the Farmers' Registry Portal." Agriculture Minister Pijush Hazarika said the aim was to see "every eligible small tea grower is seamlessly integrated into this digital ecosystem."
The ID routes a grower to institutional credit on better terms, gives timely access to fertiliser, and enrols them in government schemes and crop insurance through one platform. It also cuts out the middlemen who sit between a small plot and the factory gate.
This segment is the fastest-growing part of Assam's crop and long the least visible. Where the classic Assam garden is a large estate that plucks, withers and manufactures its own leaf, a smallholder may work a few bighas and sell green leaf on to a bought-leaf factory, taking whatever the day's rate allows. Certified strong and well grown, that leaf ends up on the same auction floor as estate tea. Now the hand behind it is on a register.
Sources: The Assam Tribune, Farmer IDs to benefit over 1.33 lakh small tea growers in Assam; BizzBuzz, Himanta Biswa Sarma calls tea registry move a game-changer for growers.