The 2023 drought may well be one of the worst disasters in the history of Taiwan’s tea industry. A tea farmer told us that his spring tea harvest was a complete washout—zero yield. He worked hard for half a year only to end up losing money on fertilizer, and yet, he wasn’t even the worst off. 😭😭
So, what’s the worst-case scenario? Tea bushes dying off entirely. This year, tea gardens across various regions saw bushes drying up completely, with some fields losing entire crops. Not only did these tea farms have practically zero spring harvest, but they also won’t yield anything for the next three years.
Back in March, many tea plants were already parched. While walking through the tea growing regions, I saw a farmer heavily pruning his tea bushes. At the time, I wondered why he would do that when the plants were practically dying of thirst. I later learned that deep pruning helps reduce moisture evaporation, thereby increasing the tea bushes’ survival rate during a drought. I was a bit skeptical until I passed by that same tea garden in May and saw the bushes had survived and even sprouted new leaves (Fig. 2). That’s when I realized how incredible experienced tea farmers are. While the neighboring tea garden lost massive sections of crops, all of his tea bushes survived.
The tea garden mentioned above had zero spring harvest, but it will still yield a small winter harvest, and production will bounce back by next year. In contrast, farms where the tea bushes died will take at least three years to recover, not to mention the heavy costs of replanting. Those are the ones who truly suffered the most in this drought.
Figure 4 shows a tea garden back in March. Severely lacking water, the entire farm looked sparse and withered, except for the vibrant, lush tea bush in Figure 5. It turned out there was a leak in a water storage tank, and this particular bush happened to be right where the water was dripping. What a lucky tea plant! 😂
