The manager shared with us that a major difficulty in introducing organic agriculture was to persuade the workforce that it would provide enough work for them.  The lower yields achieved by organic mulch and compost require less picking thereby providing less work.  However, the workers were persuaded that there is still plenty of work to do in preparing compost, looking after cattle, managing the biogas and looking after the fuel wood business.  There are only a handful of organic estates in Sri Lanka.  In part, this is because it takes three years to make the transition from inorganic, i.e. a time when yields are low and tea cannot be sold at the organic premium price.

Overall the visit was most interesting but it is sad that this is the only fair trade estate in the whole country.