The Indian government is giving a huge impetus for rubber growers by planting more rubber trees in north eastern areas of the country like Tripura, which is the second largest rubber producer in the country after Kerala state. The climate and soil in the north eastern states are most suitable for rubber cultivation.
Tripura has 72,000 ha of land under plantation, producing 40,000 tonnes/year of rubber, with a turnover of Rs480 crore/year.
“To meet domestic demands, India has been importing rubber. Therefore, the government has been giving greater impetus (to) rubber cultivation in areas like Tripura,” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was quoted as having said.
“It is a matter of consideration how rubber cultivation can be expanded in the forest and other areas without affecting the natural balance,” she added.
She said as Tripura was now in a prominent place in rubber cultivation, the central government would provide all kinds of support to the state government and rubber growers.
The minister said while implementation of the forest rights act and providing “patta” (land rights) to the tribal natives, the issue of rubber cultivation must be given importance. Sitharaman inaugurated a “border haat” at Srinagar in southern Tripura, about 140 km south of Agartala. “If the tribals willing to cultivate rubber, provision of their livelihood has to be made as the gestation period of production in the rubber plantation is seven years,” the union minister said.
She said as Tripura was now in a prominent place in rubber cultivation, the central government would provide all kinds of support to the state government and rubber growers.
India’s northeastern states are categorised as non-traditional areas for rubber cultivation. About 103,500 ha of land is under rubber cultivation in northeastern states, including Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The region produces 46,000 tonnes/year of rubber. The Kerala-based Rubber Research Institute of India has identified 450,000 ha of land suitable for rubber cultivation in the region.
India has 600,000 ha of land under rubber plantations, producing about 750,000 tonnes/year of rubber.
India’s second industrial rubber park, a joint venture between the Tripura Industrial Development Corporation and the Rubber Board, has come up in Tripura’s Bodhungnagar area to boost the polymer industry. It is the second of its kind in the country after the rubber park in Kerala’s Irapuram.