Kochi: The Rubber Board plans to adopt plantations that are lying untapped in Kerala, the largest producer of the commodity in the country, to boost output.
About 30 per cent of Keralas rubber estates, mostly small holdings, are lying untapped as commercial operations became unviable for owners due to a steep fall in the prices of the commodity over the past few years.
“We plan to do the weeding and spraying in the estates along with tapping and making sheets. On selling as latex or sheet, the surplus after meeting the expense will be given to the grower, said board executive director KN Raghavan. The board has set a production target of 7,50,000 tonnes for 2019-20 after the output fell below 7 lakh tonnes in the last three years, mainly because of a slump in prices, reflecting the international trend. From 6,94,000 tonnes in 2017-18, it fell to 6,51,000 tonnes last year.
The board proposes to run the project through 3,000-plus rubber producers societies (RPS). Sixteen rubber trading and processing companies jointly owned by the board and the RPSs will run the programme, initially identifying untapped plantations in the state. “Many of these plantations are finding it hard to engage tappers. We can use the service of the tappers bank formed by the RPSs,” Raghavan said, adding that the board plans to start the project by August. As per the data of the Association of Planters of Kerala, the rubber acreage in the state has shrunk by 8 per cent since 2010. Keralas share in Indias total rubber output has declined about 12 per cent to 77.7 per cent since thRead More – Source
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