Kolkata, April 7 (IANS): With the average annual rainfall declining in the hills of north Bengal, Assam and major tea growing areas, an Israel-based firm is keen to offer water management solutions to tea growers.

"The tea gardens are one of the major users of widespread irrigation and with the rainfall declining in the tea-growing areas, there is a need to adopt water management solutions," said Manojit Dasgupta, secretary general of the Indian Tea Association (ITA).

He said the Indian subsidiary of Israel-based Netafirm has come up with water management solutions for the tea gardens and will be meeting individual tea growers to explore business opportunities.

"Rainfall shortage severely affects the tea bushes, hence tea estates are meeting the (Israeli) firm tomorrow (Wednesday) to listen to their proposals," he said.

Rainfall scarcity not only affects the quantity of tea output but also the quality.

For the period from September 2014 to February this year, Darjeeling received an average rainfall of 0.41 mm while Dibrugarh in Assam which has numerous tea plantations received 0.47 mm of rainfall.

Further, the moisture content in the gardens too is low which may give a slow start to the new season.

While the first flush plucking of the tea leaves has already been concluded in March this year, the second flush due in May this year may suffer due to the water scarcity and rise in temperature.