Need to increase area under rubber cultivation to meet requirement: Rubber Board Chairman

19 Aug 2022 Evaluate

In order to meet the natural rubber (NR) requirement of 15 lakh tonne by 2025-26, Rubber Board Chairman Sawar Dhanania has said there is an urgent need to increase the area under rubber cultivation on a war footing, both to fulfil the domestic demand and reduce the dependence on imports and restrict the outgo of foreign exchange. The Rubber Board has identified a vast stretch of land in the northeast region and West Bengal for rubber cultivation. Tripura, which is the second largest NR producing state in the country after Kerala, is currently cultivating NR on 89,264 hectare of land and producing 93,371 tonne of rubber annually.

Dhanania added ‘NE-MITRA’ (North East Mission of Tyre Industry for Rubber Augmentation) is a project conceived by the Board to develop rubber plantations in those areas with financial support from consuming industries. He said that as per prevailing trends, NR production in India would not be sufficient to meet the consumer industry's demands as consumption is expected to reach 15 lakh tonne by 2025-26. The production-consumption gap is presently met by imports, and that involves a huge amount of foreign exchange outgo. Hence, there is an urgent need to increase the area under rubber cultivation on a war footing, both to meet the domestic demand and reduce the dependence on imports and restrict the outgo of foreign exchange.

He said that the Central government felt the need to increase NR production in the country by expanding rubber cultivation to non-traditional areas, including the northeast region and traditional regions. Board Chairman said ‘Meantime, the efforts for extra income generating activities like beekeeping, intercropping should be continued. By promoting the rubber wood industry and carbon trading is the need of the hour to make a green environment and bring sustainability to the rubber sector’.

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