The people who grow close to half of Assam's tea can now be counted, by name and by plot. The state government has added tea and plantation-class land to its Farmers' Registry Portal, letting a small tea grower obtain a unique Farmer ID that ties their identity to their land record.

As of March 31, 2025, Assam counts 1,33,864 small tea growers working 1,26,107.64 hectares, the government said. Together they supply nearly half of the state's green leaf, the raw crop the big factories buy in and turn into made tea. Until now most of them stood outside the formal farm system, which is what a Farmer ID is meant to fix.

"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 does plain, useful things. It routes a grower to institutional credit on better terms instead of the informal lenders many now rely on, gives timely access to fertiliser, and enrols them in government schemes and crop insurance through a single platform. It also cuts the dependence on middlemen who sit between a small plot and the factory gate.

The small tea grower 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 small grower may hold 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 in the same auction lots as the 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.