While the huge reserve of “black gold” (petroleum) in Wokha district remains untapped due to differences between the state government and land owners, people of this district have already started prospecting for “”white gold” or rubber.
And the rush for “white gold” (so called because of rubber’s valuable properties) is endemic as 103 villages out of 129 recognized villages in Wokha district have taken up rubber plantation in earnest. By 2020, it is estimated that the district would generate a staggering income of around Rs. 111 crore from rubber alone.
According to the status report of State Department of Land Resources (LR), till April 2013, the district had 2121 hectares under rubber plantation with 10, 61,335 standing trees.
With a rubber tree yielding approximately 4.5 kg dry rubber per year after tapping, the total yield of dry rubber in Wokha district in 2013 stood at 2,84,062 kgs. Taking the average market price of rubber at Rs. 185 per kg, the total income of the rubber farmers stood at Rs. 5.25 crores in 2013.
“As per our latest survey (2014), the area under rubber cultivation in Wokha district is 2961 hectares and number standing tress is 13,32,587. This year too, the department has distributed 11,90,000 rubber stumps to the farmers”, said district project officer (DPO), LR Wokha, Tepunol Yore.
The DPO said the area under rubber plantation and standing trees would be more as the department had only taken into account plantations of LR department beneficiaries.
Yore also said that going by the present trend, by 2020 Wokha district is expected to produce at least 59,96,061 kgs rubber worth Rs. 111 crores. “The huge income generated by Wokha rubber farmers will certainly be a turning point in the economy of the local people as well as set a bench mark for other districts on the road to economic self-sufficiency”, said parliamentary secretary for Women Development and Border Affairs, Thomas Lotha, during the inauguration of a Rubber Board of India (RBI) field office at Sanis town on June 30 last.
Most of the rubber plantations in the district are concentrated in villages under 39 Sanis assembly constituency.
Thomas, who represents Sanis assembly seat, also said the increasing demand for rubber in global market and lucrative income being generated by pioneer rubber farmers in Wokha district have encouraged poor farmers to shift to rubber cultivation from traditional shifting/jhum cultivation. Thomas also informed RBI officials that he had distributed around 5 lakh rubber stamps to villagers over the last couple of years before requesting the RBI to open a field office at Sanis.
According to the International Rubber Research and Development Board, Malaysia, about 20 million people directly depend on rubber as their primary source of income.
As per the survey of the Land Resources Department, out of a total geographical area of 162800 hectares of Wokha district, rubber can be successfully cultivated in 1,16,546 hectares. Rubber was introduced as a cash crop in Wokha in 2000.