Climate change and agriculture are interdependent. Climate change can have significant impacts on the conditions affecting agricultural crops and productivity.The severity of these climate impacts is likely to be highest in regions where climate-environment system dependency is high, for example, the tea landscapes of Northeast India. Climate change poses a real threat to tea production in this region and may have substantial implications for the tea industry, the national economy, and the livelihoods of millions of people, especially smallholders.

To understand how climate change may be affecting tea production inthe state of Assam, one of the most highly productive tea regions in India, collaborative research entitled "Climate-smartening Assam's tea plantation landscapes: defining socio-ecological 'safe spaces' for future sustainability" was carried out between Tea Research Association, India and University of Southampton, UK (funded by DST-UKIERI Program 2014-2016). The research explored the themes of climate variability, land management practices and climate-smart agriculture, encompassing the four main tea growing regions of Assam; Upper Assam, South Bank, North Bank and Cachar. Amongst other aspects of Assam's tea landscape, research investigated climate influences on agricultural tea production through identifying associations between precipitation and temperature variability and tea yield.

TeaCAT (Tea Climate Advisory Tool) is a web-enabled climate advisory tool developed as part of this collaborative research to inform the tea planter's community about the how climate has affected monthly tea crop yield over the period 2004 - 2013. The tool is designed to be assistive for helping decision-making processes to guide climate-smart agriculture practices at the landscape scale. More details of the above collaborative project can be found at the project website.