TO COUNTER the decline of rubber planting in the country. Sri Lanka promotes cultivation of rubber in home gardens with new varieties of rubber that can be grown in dry zones, and a cloned rubber variety that can be planted in home gardens.
The Rubber Research Institute (RRI) of Sri Lanka introduces a system to grow rubber at home garden level. Around 1,500 and 1,300 families in Moneragala and Vavuniya and Hambantota districts, respectively, have joined in he project. An additional 340 families in the Agalawatta electorate have also begun planting rubber in their home gardens.
The deterioration of rubber cultivation has been going on for the last forty years, when residential buildings have taken up the land areas that used to be planted with rubber.
According to RRI Director, Dr W.M.G. Seneviratne, during the 70s, 214,000 hectares of land was planted with rubber; the area has since been reduced to 121,000 hectares as home buildings as well as shift to other more profitable crops took over rubber planting.