With the increasing number of rubber plantations in Nagaland and the felt need to assist the growers, chairman of Rubber Board of India (RBI) has approved the proposal to open rubber field office in Sanis under Wokha and Niuland under Dimapur.
The proposed field offices would function under field officers from the rubber board and cater to the needs of the rubber growers/farmers in both the places. The offices have already been constructed and would be inaugurated soon in March or late April, informed Hari.
Assistant development officer (ADO) V.D Hari of RBI, Dimapur informed that last year, the rubber board received 2400 applications from various parts of the state to take up rubber plantation. This was probably the highest number of applications received in India by the rubber board, Hari said.
Though there were marketing bottlenecks in Nagaland due to poor road conditions and related transportation issues, RBI was giving its best effort to help farmers adopt scientific method of growing and tapping rubber for better result.
Hari also informed that rubber board would be conducting classes in the villages from the month of April.
Hari also informed that as incentives, the farmers would get a subsidy of Rs. 30,000 per hectare in 6 installments.
Once the scheme was approved, the subsidy would be further increased. Only those RBI registered farmers who followed the scientific method of planting as recommended by RBI would get the subsidy.
Source: Nagaland Post
Published: 11 Feb 2014