The Hindu Business Line : Rubber yield to grow with better farm practices

THE country's average yield of natural rubber is expected to rise to 1,700 kg a hectare this fiscal from 1,663 kg last year, as high prices induce growers to adopt best farm management practices.

"We hope it will touch 1,700 kg this year. We have never had a year in which the productivity has gone down," said Dr A.K. Krishna Kumar, Rubber Production Commissioner of Rubber Board.

Dr Kumar said such a yield would make India the `top in the world' in natural rubber productivity levels, ahead of many other major rubber-producing countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.

The average yield in the eight countries that are members of the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) is only 1,030 kg in a hectare, Dr Kumar said.

An industry expert said the increase in productivity stemmed from high prices of rubber prevailing in the market. "The main reason is price. People do more rain-guarding and put more fertilisers to get the maximum output," he said.

In July this year, rubber prices touched Rs 67.50 a kg for the RSS 4 grade, the highest in recent years. Currently, the price hovers around Rs 53 a kg.

Area expansion

The Rubber Board is planning to add 3,000 hectares of new area this fiscal to India's 5.74 lakh hectares of rubber plantation, Dr Kumar said. The North-East region would account for 2,000 hectares of this new plantation.

Replantation will be done in 4,000 hectares, slaughtering old, low-yielding trees to replace with new plantlets. Kerala, which has 85 per cent of the country's plantations, will see replantation in 2,700 hectares.

Dr Kumar said the Rubber Board is focussing its attention on spreading rubber plantation in the North-East, despite the region's insurgency problems. The low cost of land and labour in the North-East more than offsets its lower productivity.

"You can't compare the land cost and labour charges with that in Kearla," he said. Productivity in the region will be 80-90 per cent of Kerala. North-East region has around 54,000 hectares of rubber plantation, producing 18,000 tonnes last year.

Tripura has half of the region's plantations, while Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Misoram have the rest. This year, the region would increase its production to 20,000 tonnes.

Rubber plantations are encouraged in the region as tribal rehabilitation projects.

Dr Kumar said the board is taking steps to propagate rubber plantation as a means for tribal rehabilitation in other parts of the country too. In Orissa, 400 hectares of plantation is getting ready for tapping in Mayurbhanj district. Such efforts are also on in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.