Nagaland rubber: 20,000 metric tonnes from 19,000 hectares

October 19, 2024 3 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Dimapur | October 19

Nagaland currently has 19,000 hectares of land under rubber plantation. Spread across 7 districts, the plantations cumulatively produce approximately 20,000 metric tonnes annually, as per the national Rubber Board.

There is however a catch to it as not all of the existing grown rubber trees are being tapped.

“There are still many untapped areas, which are crucial to maximising production,” M Vasanthagesan, Executive Director, Rubber Board, told a press conference in Niuland on October 18. The press conference was addressed on the sideline of a visit to a rubber nursery managed by the Toka Multipurpose Cooperative Society in Vihokhu village.

The country’s average yield is over 1.4 metric tonnes per hectare.

Vasanthagesan led a delegation of officials from the Rubber Board and the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) to the state over the past two days. The team also included Ashish Pandey, Senior Vice President, JKTYRE & Industries.

While stating that the visit was part of an ongoing effort to promote rubber plantation in the north-eastern region, he said that the delegation also met the state Chief Secretary and the Land Resources Department. He said that the discussions centred on expansion, skill development and utilising the existing rubber trees.

The Rubber Board currently has a project, in partnership with the ATMA, to expand rubber plantation in the NE region, except Sikkim, by 2 lakh hectares. He said that they have already established 1.25 lakh hectares and targetting to cover the remaining area by the end of 2025.

Rajiv Buthraja, Director General, ATMA, said that the project’s focus extends beyond tapping. “We aim to foster value addition within Nagaland. This means transforming the raw rubber into high-quality rubber sheets that can be used by the tire companies,” he said.

India’s annual domestic rubber yield stands at 8.5 lakh metric tonnes against an approximately demand of 14.5 lakh metric tonnes. According to Buthraja, rubber plantations in the past were established without a focused policy in place, which may have contributed to the lack of value-added outcomes in Nagaland.

JKtyre’s Ashish Pandey said that no single state can bridge the production. However, states like Assam and Tripura have taken initial steps, leading to a reasonable volume of production.

The Rubber Board Executive Director, Vasanthagesan termed rubber as an environmentally sustainable crop. He claimed that rubber does not require clearing of forests and can be grown on land where other crops cannot thrive. He added that if rubber farmers are proactive, intercropping provides a good opportunity for income generation during the immature phase.