Assam has included tea and plantation-class land in its Farmers' Registry Portal, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, opening credit and welfare-scheme access to the state's small tea growers.

"Today marks a historic day for the lakhs of small tea growers in Assam. Tea and plantation-class land holdings are now included in the Farmers' Registry Portal," Sarma said, according to IANS.

The registry ties a grower's Farmer ID to fertiliser allocation, institutional credit on standard bank terms, and direct benefit transfers for government welfare schemes, replacing informal lenders and middlemen as the route to those services. Tea land had sat outside the registry, which India's states have been building out for general farmers since 2021, because it was classed as plantation rather than agricultural land.

Small growers, independent farmers who sell green leaf to bought-leaf factories rather than run their own estates, cultivated 1,26,107.64 hectares in Assam and numbered 1,33,864 as of March 31, 2025, according to Tea Board of India figures. They now supply close to half the state's crop, a share that has grown steadily as smallholder output has outpaced the large estates.

The registry move is separate from the pattas, or land titles, issued to more than 3.5 lakh tea garden worker families under the Assam Fixation of Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Act, 2025, on February 10. That earlier measure covered garden workers' residential and homestead land; the registry addresses small growers' plantation land, a distinct group within Assam's tea workforce.

Sources: IANS via New Kerala, Assam includes tea land in farmers' registry: Key benefits; Assam Tribune, Farmer IDs to benefit over 1.33 lakh small tea growers in Assam.