Abstract
Tea is a popular cash crop in Asian and African countries that can be
grown from tropical to subtropical climates with high humidity and heavy
rainfall. India is the second-largest producer of Tea worldwide, having
approximately 567 thousand hectares under tea cultivation.
Interestingly, rainfall partitioning parameters (i.e., throughfall (TF),
stem flow (SF) and interception (IC)) for Tea plantation do not appear
to have been investigated. Therefore, this study aims to experimentally
monitor TF, and SF for Tea. For this study, a Tea plantation of nearly
27-year-old grown in an area of 1.3 acres at the experimental farm of
IIT Kharagpur campus, West Bengal, India was selected. IC was derived
from the in-situ measured TF and SF values, against the 106 nos.
rainfall events (RE) recorded during 2017-2018. RE depth varied from 3
mm- 60 mm with a coefficient of variance (CV) of 84%. However, relative
portion of rainfall as TF (TF%), SF (SF%), and I (IC%) varied from
59-89%, 0.1-2%, 10%-40% with CV as 10%, 29% and 27%,
respectively. Thus, the portion of rainfall that reaches SF was
insignificant (≤2%) than TF. Therefore, SF can be omitted considering a
negligible portion, and IC can be derived directly from TF for Tea
plantation. Average values of TF and IC were obtained as 72% and 27%
of incident R. Furthermore, the response of all these partitioning
parameters were analyzed against RE characteristics such as RE depth,
intensity, and duration. These results are the first of their kind in
respect of TF, SF, and IC values for Tea plantation besides being also
consistent with those reported elsewhere for other plantations, and are
useful for pragmatic applications.