Challenging Convention: The Sanjukta Vikas Cooperative in Darjeeling, India

Pin It

By Dan Kane

Darjeeling tea is considered to be among the finest in the world and is often referred to as the “Champagne of Teas.” Much like the French wine, Darjeeling tea cannot be grown anywhere else because the soil and climate conditions there give it a unique flavor.

Farmers in the Sanjukta Vikas Cooperative use the profits made by selling tea to reinvest in the community. (Photo credit: Ida C. Benedetto)

But despite the tea’s reputation for fine flavor, the Darjeeling tea industry has a history that’s far less pristine.

In 2010, negotiations between the state government, plantation owners, and plantation trade unions set the wage for tea laborers at Rs. 63 a day, or less than $1.50 USD. Even those plantations labeled as Fair Trade by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) and receive a premium price for their product rarely pass on these profits to laborers.


In addition, conventional tea plantations often use heavy amounts of pesticides, putting workers at risk. The recent documentary “The Bitter Taste of Tea,” found that many workers aren’t given working  safety equipment and that they often experience serious health problems related to chemical exposure.


But on a Darjeeling estate abandoned over 50 years ago, a group of local farmers have taken over the land, forming a growing cooperative with the help of local NGO Darjeeling Ladenla Road Prerna (DLR Prerna).

British owners abandoned their tea estate at Mineral Springs near Darjeeling shortly after India gained independence in 1947. The few hundred families living there took control of the land, living a mostly subsistence lifestyle until about ten years ago when residents formed a dairy cooperative that delivered goods such as milk and yogurt to Darjeeling. With the help of DLR Prerna and other local development NGO’s, the small dairy cooperative became the Sanjukta Vikas Cooperative (SVC), which means “united development,” and began to rehabilitate the largely abandoned tea bushes in 2003.

Now SVC grows organic teas on the former plantation that are marketed by Massachusetts-based Equal Exchange under a Fair Trade label. And unlike other plantations that have similar Fair Trade labels but do not pass on the higher profits made by selling the tea at such a premium, members of the cooperative share the profit fairly, deciding in cooperative meetings where to reinvest. The community has used profits to build schools, invest in women’s health initiatives, and build an infrastructure for the cooperative that has allowed them to steadily expand their business while maintaining their organic and Fair Trade certifications.


To read more about farmers’ cooperatives see: Forming Groups and Transforming Livelihoods and Cooperating for a Profit: Winrock International and Kasinthula Cane Growers Limited.

Dan Kane is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project.

Similar posts:
  2. Innovation of the Week: Climate Smart Seaweed Farming
  3. What works: Innovations for Improving Biodiversity and Livelihoods
  4. From Slash and Burn to Sustainable Development from the Grassroots in Northeast India
  5. Kenyan Professor Promotes Indigenous Food to Solve Climate Change Food Crisis
  6. The Man Who Stopped the Desert
  7. Nourishing the Planet TV: Getting to Market
  8. Where Cultivation Meets Conflict: Rebuilding Liberian Farms in the Aftermath of War