Leading biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak, in collaboration with PIRBI, a community business zeal, organised a one-day hands-on training on the preparation of handmade Green Tea and Orthodox Tea at Sivoram Terang village in the Diring River Basin of the Kaziranga–Karbi Anglong Landscape in Assam, empowering local Karbi women with practical skills for taking up an alternative and sustainable livelihood.
The training brought together eight Karbi women from rural households across the Diring River Basin, where traditional tea cultivation and homestead farming form an important part of local livelihoods. The initiative aimed to build on existing community knowledge and enable women to transform locally grown tea leaves into higher-value products that can be processed at the household level.
Rani Singnarpi, an experienced Green Tea and Orthodox Tea practitioner from Sivoram Terang village, served as the resource person for the training. The participants visited her tea farm, where they received practical demonstrations on selecting suitable tea leaves, proper plucking and processing techniques. They were subsequently trained in preparing hand-rolled Green Tea, including boiling, hand rolling and sun drying, followed by hands-on instruction in Orthodox Tea preparation.
The training seeks to create a low-investment, home-based livelihood opportunity for rural women while preserving traditional tea-making practices as a living community heritage. By strengthening processing skills and promoting value addition, the initiative can help women move beyond the sale of fresh tea leaves and explore better-value speciality tea products.
Sharing her experience, Jirhun Killingpi of Sivoram Terang village said that local farmers generally sell fresh tea leaves to tea companies through leaf-collection agents, earning around ₹20–30 per kilogram, depending on quality. She expressed hope that the newly acquired processing skills would enable her to produce value-added Green and Orthodox Tea and access better market opportunities through PIRBI.
Junaki Teronpi of Thenkur Terang village also highlighted the practical benefits of the training, noting that learning about leaf selection, plucking, rolling and drying had helped her understand how these processes influence the quality, appearance and value of the final tea product.
Speaking on quality and market requirements, Moromi Nath of Aaranyak explained the standards required for handmade Green Tea and Orthodox Tea under PIRBI. She said the processed tea would be procured and valued according to its quality, with factors such as leaf selection and size, proper rolling and thorough drying determining the final grade. She encouraged the participants to continue practising with small quantities to gradually improve their skills and product quality.
Larbeen Teronpi of Aaranyak introduced PIRBI as a community-based business and food-processing initiative working in the Kaziranga–Karbi Anglong Landscape. She highlighted the Community Food Processing Centres established by PIRBI in the Diring River (DRB) and Kohora River (KRB) Basins, which provide local communities with opportunities to add value to agricultural and nutritious products such as turmeric, ginger, tapioca, moringa and other locally available produce.
The initiative aims to strengthen household economic resilience by creating opportunities for local communities to process, market and derive greater value from resources already available within their surroundings. The training was attended by participants from Sivoram Terang, Raso Engti, Thengkur Terang and Diring Lekthe villages of the Diring River Basin.
The programme was coordinated by Aaranyak’s team under its Natural Resource Management Programme, which promotes alternative and sustainable livelihoods and nature-based solutions for indigenous and local communities. The programme is supported by IUCN-KfW, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Disney Conservation Fund.