Guwahati, Nov 4: Rubber Board has tied up with the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) to implement a project to increase area under natural rubber production by 1,90,000 hectares in the Northeast by the year 2026.
Activities under the five-year project are underway in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal from 2021-22.
The target area under the project in Assam is the highest at 1,00,000 hectares, followed by Tripura (30,000) hectares and Meghalaya where 21,000 hectares will be developed for natural rubber production during the period.
Addressing media persons here, K.N Raghavan, executive director, Rubber Board said the board with financial help from ATMA has undertaken the project in 2021-22 to develop 1,90,000 hectares of rubber plantations in the Northeastern states as well as 10,000 hectares in West Bengal over a period of five years.
“Rubber Board is taking initiatives in setting up nurseries within the jurisdiction of its 50 field offices across the Northeast. Under these field offices, the nurseries will be run by rubber farmers. The board will provide financial support, seeds and each nursery can produce 80,000 to 1 lakh saplings,” Raghavan said.
In his address, ATMA chairman Satish Sharma said the Northeast region has immense potential for rubber plantation in view of availability of land and suitable agro-climatic conditions.
“Natural rubber demand-supply gap has been widening in India. So ATMA, in collaboration with the Rubber Board, is working for production of natural rubber in the Northeast,” he said.
Currently, Northeast accounts for 18 percent of natural rubber production in the country.
Tripura is the second largest producer of natural rubber in the country and accounts for 58 percent of the total rubber produced in the Northeast region.
Once the objective of developing plantations in the additional two lakh hectares under the project is achieved, it is estimated that the share pattern will change drastically and the share of the Northeastern states will increase to 32 percent of production.