Who grows Assam’s tea, and who controls the tea land?

Tea cultivation in Assam has grown through two very different pathways: the rapid rise of small growers across the state and the long-established presence of large estates in the older plantation districts. Looking at growers alone gives the impression of a sector dominated almost entirely by small growers. But when we place land and production alongside these numbers, the structure of the industry becomes clearer.

Small and large growers are defined by the area they operate. In Assam, anyone cultivating up to 10.12 hectares of tea is classified as a small grower. Those operating more than this are counted as large growers, which include the traditional estate system.

The first chart shows how these three pieces fit together. Small growers form almost the entire grower base, yet they cultivate just a little over one-third of the tea area. Despite this smaller land share, they now produce nearly half of Assam’s tea. This suggests that small growers have become central to the expansion of cultivation and are contributing significantly to output even within their limited land.

Large estates, on the other hand, operate most of the land and still produce slightly more than half of the state’s tea. Their dominance in land allows them to maintain high overall production even though they make up only a tiny share of total growers. The sector is therefore shaped by uneven land distribution, with small growers driving participation and estates anchoring the production base.

The district chart shows how this structure varies across Assam.Districts like Dhemaji, Karbi Anglong, and Bongaigaon have become strong small-grower regions, where most of the area under tea is in small-grower hands. In contrast, the traditional tea belt of Upper Assam including Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Golaghat remains estate-led, with large estates operating the majority of the land.

These differences reflect how tea expanded: long-established estates in the east, and newer small-grower growth in the central and western districts. Across the state, however, the underlying pattern remains consistent: small growers are many, but estates continue to control most of the land.

Taken together, the charts show a sector that is broad in participation but concentrated in land. Small growers are now essential to Assam’s tea economy, reaching almost every district. Yet the foundation of land and much of the production continues to sit with the estate system. This balance between widespread cultivation and concentrated land is what shapes tea in Assam today.