Centre is planning to focus on the North-East to increase the acreage under plantation which has otherwise remained stagnant in the last decade.
“The North-Eastern region of our country holds tremendous potential for the plantation sector as the weather condition is quite favourable for these crops,” A K Mangotra, additional secretary of Ministry of Commerce, said.
We have seen sound growth of rubber in Tripura and would like planters to look for opportunities in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, he added.
The total area under plantation is estimated to be around 1.7 million ha, which is less than 1 per cent of the total cropped area in the country.
The plantation sector was estimated to be at Rs 25,443 crore in 2009-10 which accounts for nearly 2.53 per cent of the total agricultural GDP of the country.
The export realisation during this period was around Rs 5,645 crore which accounts for nearly 8 per cent of the agricultural and allied products.
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However, the sector is facing problems like reduced productivity due to old plantation, shortage of labour, primitive ways of production among others.
“For sustainability of the plantation sector, planters should replace ageing plantation through replanting along with higher mechanisation,” he said.
He also said, management of plantation industry became a big issue as there was a lack of professionals to manage these entities.
“There are many free trade agreements (FTA) that our country is expected to sign soon. So, the plantation sector should be export-oriented to face the competition from these global players.”
While FTA with ASEAN will be operational soon, the country is expected to finalise another FTA with Japan in the next few months along with Malaysia.
On the productivity front, he said there was an alarming situation of productivity in some of the plantation crops like coffee.
“Productivity is the key to sustainability of the sector and we should try to be on a par with our global peers in this sector,” he said.
Referring to this issue, T V Alexander, president of United Planters’ Association of Southern India (UPASI), said, “The Centre should share the social welfare cost provided to its employees to reduce the cost of operation of an entity.”
Presently, plantation is the only sector in India which is statutorily required to provide social and welfare benefits for their employees as stipulated by the Plantation Labour Act.
“This is a long-standing demand of the industry and government should give a favourable look to this matter,” he said. He also demanded approval from various state governments to diversify land usage to an extent of 10 per cent towards other revenue — generating activities.