The tea farmers of Ilam have demanded that the government immediately release about Rs 275 million as financial support for setting up 11 more tea processing plants in their district.

Representatives of tea farmers of Ilam who had come to the capital city to lobby for this met Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and members of agriculture and cooperative committee of the interim parliament and put forward this demand, the Kantipur Daily reported.

They have also warned that if the government doesn’t set up processing plants in Ilam, the 5.2 million kilograms of green tea produced this year would all go waste and through this the tea business of Ilam may collapse completely.