Impact of Rubber Tree Providing Shade Conditions on Physiological Processes of Tea

Tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) is one of the most popular beverages, which is being consumed by over two thirds of the world’s population due to its refreshing, nutritional and medicinal properties. Owing to the geography of Assam, shade is an integral part of tea plantation of this region. Though tea cultivation is considered as a mono cropping system, it is the only plantation crop integrated with other crops of economic importance to maximize productivity in tea plantations. Rubber (HeveabrasilensisMuell Arg.) is an economically important crop. It may be used as an alternative to commercial shade trees. In this experiment the impact of rubber tree shade on some physical processes of tea was studied in the Experimental Garden for Plantation Crops, Department of Tea Husbandry and Technology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. The experiment was conducted under two cropping situations i.e.; one involves tea grown as monocrop (conventional shade) and other involves tea – rubber-based cropping system (rubber as shade). The effect on photosynthetic related parameters along with the physical condition of the microclimate such as light transmission, Photosynthetically Active Radiation was observed. The effect of rubber leaf canopy on the tea bushes was compared with that of traditional shade tree. From the study, it may be concluded that there is a significant variation in the physical parameters in tea bushes under rubber shade over conventional shade. The study generated a considerable amount of important information on the effect of Albizzia chinensis shade and rubber shade on physical parameters. Better performance was noticed under conventional shade which is due to the availability of necessary photosynthetically active radiation and light intensity that maintains the leaf temperature of the plants.