International Tea Day 2022: Significance, Impact on Environment and all you need to know

International Tea Day, as designated by the United Nations’ General Assembly, is celebrated on May 21 across the globe every year.

The event is observed to promote and foster collective actions to implement activities in favour of sustainable production and consumption of tea and raise awareness of its importance in fighting hunger and poverty.

Tea is the world’ most consumed drink, after water, states the UN. Moreover, the tea industry stands as the main sector of income and export revenues for many economically challenged countries.

Tea has several health benefits. It is an anti-inflammatory beverage which provides antioxidant and helps in weight loss process.

Tea production has several sustainable development goals which include:

• Reduction of poverty.
• Fight against hunger.
• Women empowerment.
• Sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.

Tea production is a highly sensitive process. The procedure includes narrowly defined agro-ecological conditions and hence, limited to a few countries, many of which are heavily impacted by climate change. Extreme environment changes like floods and droughts are already affecting yields.  That has led to decline in the quality and prices of the tea, thus, threatening rural livelihoods.

To ensure tea production does suffer more than it already has, tea-producing countries must integrate climate change challenges, both on the adaptation and mitigation front, into their national tea development strategies, suggested the UN.