THE RUBBER Board of India is looking into utitising the government’s rural employment guarantee scheme to increase the natural rubber output of the country.
According to the agency, the current 9 million tonne a year may be increased if there will be more workers to cultivate the identified tracts of land for plantation. It said that it has identified 4,00,000 hectares in the Northeast, 1,00,000 hectares in Odisha and 50,000 hectares each in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh as potential natural rubber plantation areas.
The Board, which is currently facing shortage of funds and labour, has requested the commerce ministry to draft a plan that will allow the rural job scheme to encourage workers for rubber.