Farmers need assistance from government
SHILLONG: Rubber plantation can go a long way in solving the perennial problem of unemployment in Meghalaya as the State has a tremendous potential when it comes to rubber plantation.
Most of the rubber in the State is grown in Garo Hills, and realizing the bright prospects in rubber cultivation, now a large portion of the population in the Garo Hills is venturing into rubber plantation.
Currently, caoutchouc, or natural rubber, is harvested mainly in the form of latex from certain trees. The latex is a sticky, milky substance drawn off by making incisions into the bark and collecting the fluid in vessels in a process called “tapping”. The latex then is refined into rubber ready for commercial processing.
Some farmers who plant rubber in the Garo Hills say that they require more assistance of the State Government in doing rubber plantation in a large scale even as they feel that rubber plantation can play a pivotal role in empowering them. “We work very hard as we have to wait for five six years when our rubbers get finally ready to be sold in the market,” farmer Lakson Sangma says.
Stressing on the need for more support from the Government, another farmer said that the people of Garo Hills would be empowered economically if the Government could provide more assistance to them in rubber plantation. “What we need is the support and further training on rubber plantation,” a farmer in Resubelpara says.
Meghalaya Commercial Crops Development Board (MCCDB) has taken up one scheme in collaboration with the Rubber Board of India. Under this scheme, small and marginal grower of the state who take up rubber plantation are to be brought under a single umbrella, namely Rubber grower’s society/ Rubber Producer’s society, so that some of the main problem like contacting the technical officers, bringing the plantation materials, raising the polybag nurseryand taking up of the pre-planting operation can be undertaken under its banner for the benefit of the members.
Commercial cultivation of rubber tree, the source of natural rubber, was introduced in India in 1902 in Kerala. But, in the south western coast the cultivation of rubber has reached almost a point of saturation, according to a NEDFi databank in website, but some areas in the north east region have been identified as non-traditional areas suitable for rubber cultivation. Though rubber is a tropical tree, it grows well in some parts of NE.
Tripura, a member of the NE family of states, has emerged as the second largest rubber growing state in India, with nearly 12,000 hectares under rubber in 2010-11, the production being valued at about Rs 42 crore in 2011-12, according to the Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation Limited website. Rubber cultivation was introduced in Tripura in 1963 and has emerged as a way of rehabilitation of tribal families engaged in jhoom cultivation.
More than 36,000 articles ranging from giant truck tyres to small bushes are manufactured from rubber. The tyre industry consumer nearly 85% of the natural rubber produced in India and there is an ever- increasing demand for rubber.