Natural Rubber production up by 8.7% in May

In May this year, the production of natural rubber (NR) was 8.7 per cent more than that in the same month last year. Production during May 2017 was 50,000 tonnes, whereas it was 46,000 tonnes in May 2016.

According to Rubber Board data, production in the first two months of the current financial year was around 98,000 tonnes against 85,000 tonnes a year ago. This is an increase of 15.3 per cent.

Board is anticipating production around 8 lakh tonnes for the current year. 

The Board is continuing its activities to make rubber cultivation remunerative by increasing production and reducing the cost of cultivation. It has been implementing several activities at regional and field levels, with the active cooperation of Rubber Producer's Societies (RPSs).

The annual mass contact programme of the Rubber Board this year was aimed at the total excellence of the plantations.

There were about 50,000 participants in 800 meetings conducted at various rubber growing areas as part of the mass contact programme. Practices such as weekly tapping, controlled upward tapping, rain guarding, online fertiliser recommendation, scheme for intercropping to be implemented in collaboration with Kerala state agricultural department and rubber tapper skill development programme under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) were discussed in the meetings.

The second phase of training for 22,000 persons in rubber tapping and processing in Kerala, Tripura, Assam, Tamilnadu and Karnataka, under PMKVY has already begun. In the first phase of the training programme, 10,000 persons were trained. Stipend has been paid to the majority of the participants in the first phase. The impact assessment of already conducted programmes shows positive effects in productivity, said the Board.