Dhubri, Oct. 12 -- An old pressure cooker, a household mixer-grinder and a farmer's ingenuity have come together in an unusual experiment in tea processing in Assam.

Ratan Ray, a 51-year-old farmer from Choibari, Hindupara in Dhubri district, has improvised a tea-processing machine from everyday household appliances, seeking to overcome one of the challenges faced by small tea growers - the high cost of specialised machinery.

With 25 years of experience in tea cultivation, Ray understood the difficulties of processing tea without access to expensive equipment. His solution was to repurpose an old pressure cooker and connect it to the motor of a regular mixer-grinder, fitting specially designed metal blades inside the cooker.

The improv...