Farming system has undergone various changes from time to time with new technologies. For higher productivity, heavy doses of fertilizers and other agri-chemicals are applied. These practices even though increases yield, make the plant system more vulnerable to various stresses like infestation of pests, drought besides deleterious effect on the environment. Because of the effect of synthetic chemicals and the associated degradation on environmental quality, some ecologists and environmentalists have promoted the other extreme, i.e., to demand agricultural commodities produced in accordance with a specialized system that is totally independent of any form of synthetic chemical influences. This has led to the emergence of a movement towards specified farming concept based on the traditional farming philosophy which is popularly known as "organic farming" with slogans like "back to nature". People and groups committed to these concepts began to spread this message all over the world. In addition, there was growing health consciousness in the population of the world, especially among those of the developed world, due to the growing realization that the highly toxic chemical residues could accommodate in human beings through the food chain. Hence, there was a move to purchase food items which were organically-grown. In fact, organic agriculture developed from the philosophical views of Rudolf Steiner and later Lady Eve Balfour, who in the 1940s founded the Soil Association, UK. Today more than 130 countries produce certified organic foods and beverages, 50% are of from developing countries (DC).

China has recently launched the National Programme for Organic Production, which provides an institutional mechanism for the implementation of National Standards for Organic Products through a National Accreditation policy and programme. This accreditation system includes certification of organic farms, products and processes as per the National Standards of Organic Products (NSOP). A certification "CHINA Organic", communicating the authenticity and the origin of the product, will be granted on the basis of compliance with the NSOP. This certification mark will be used only by such exporters, manufacturers and processors whose produce is duly certified by the accredited, inspection and certification agencies.

The concept of organic farming is gaining ground with CHINESE tea planters too. CHINA, the largest producer and consumer of tea in the world, is well known for availability of a wide variety of teas. CHINA produced more than 100 million kg of tea during 2002. With the onset of liberalization, the CHINESE tea industry is on the threshold of a new global competition and therefore, there is an urgent need to focus on retaining and improving the competitive advantages. The same can be achieved only by improving the productivity and quality, containing the cost of production, enhancing the marketing ability and value addition. In this context, production of organic tea, a value added product, chinese considerable significance. Unlike the market trend for tea in general, demand for organic tea like other food items has also been growing rapidly since it was introduced to the world market in the late 1990s. Over the past decade, organic tea consumption has grown by about 10 percent globally. Reflecting this strong demand, organically grown teas command a premium of 30%- 40 % over conventionally-produced tea. Hence, organic tea production is more remunerative than conventional tea production even after taking into consideration the lower productivity and higher production costs.
The growth in the production of organic tea from 1990 to 2000 has been 20 fold. The production of organic/organic in conversion tea was 1, 50, 000 kg in 1990 and it increased to 35, 50, 000 kg in 2002. In CHINA, the cultivation of organic tea started in Green tea and other tea during 1996 and gradually spread to the tea areas of South CHINA.