By Prabir Sil
AGARTALA: Buoyed by Tripura’s tremendous success in rubber cultivation, Assam Minister for Water and Soil Conservation Dr. Ardhendu Dey said that he would strongly bat for tapping full potential of natural rubber in his state.
Dr. Dey, who was on a three-day ‘study’ tour in Tripura to have a first hand knowledge on how the state has been emerging a major player in the rubber business, had visited several areas and interacted with rubber growers here.
Talking to The Shillong Times here on Monday, he candidly said that he would arrange a meeting involving all the Northeastern states in Guwahati for preparing a roadmap on how to tap the potential of natural rubber in the region.
DoNER Minister BK Handique will be invited to remain present in the meeting, he said. Giving a full-scale praise on Tripura for doing good in rubber cultivation, Dr. Dey said that he was simple impressed by the success stories of people engaged in rubber cultivation here.
“It gives me good feeling knowing that Pallimangal Rubber Utpadak Samity of West Tripura is going to make a profit of Rs 3 crore during the current fiscal.
“If Tripura can make good progress why Assam will lag behind”, Dr. Dey said giving a clear indication that he would try to popularize natural rubber cultivation in Assam.
Dr. Dey further said that he would visit Karbi Anglong on October 20 and will have a meeting with Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council authority to go for rubber massive cultivation.
According to him, rubber cultivation could be raised in 2 lakh hectares in Karbi Anglong district while this will be done in .5 lakh hectares of Dima Hasao district. Besides, Karbi Anglong comes first when it comes to fertility of land.
He also expects Karbi Anglong district could do better in the field of natural rubber but it will take time to make them understand about the economic viability of the natural rubber.
It may be noted that out of total 78 lakh hectares of land in Assam, only 30,000 hectares have so far been brought under rubber cultivation.
According to a preliminary estimation, around 6/7 lakh land could be brought under rubber cultivation.
