Studies revealed that the decrease in India’s rubber production and the farmers’ income are the result of the shortage of skilled tappers in the industry. In line with this, the Centre has approved a scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Kausal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) for skills development and training for the small rubber holders’ sector in the country.
The scheme will be implemented by India’s Rubber Board with the active cooperation of National Skill Development Corporation and Rubber Skill Development Council.
The Rs150,000 project will provide skills development training to 16,500 labourers working in the rubber harvesting and processing sectors in Kerala and Tripura States. An amount of Rs28,000 has been allotted for the training of 10,000 tappers in the small holder sector in Kerala as part of the scheme’s first phase.
The Scheme will be implemented in the state with the participation of Rubber Producer’s Societies. There are 150 centres under the jurisdiction of 26 regional offices of the Board that have already been identified for the purpose.
The training process will start in the second week of October and will continue up to 2017 January. A three-day skills development training session will be given to those who have prior experience in tapping and processing. Each batch will be comprised of 30 trainees.
Employing unskilled labourers for tapping will result in yield decrease and reduction in economic life of rubber trees. Many holdings were left untapped in the State owing to the shortage of skilled tappers.
Quality improvement of the primary produce is essential in increasing the income of the growers and keeping the sector sustainable. Moreover, availability of skilled tappers are essential in the effective implementation of modern tapping techniques like weekly tapping, controlled upward tapping, etcetera.
The trained tappers can become part of the Tapper Bank Scheme, the new concept of the Board to overcome the shortage of skilled tappers in the sector.