Agartala: More area could be brought under rubber cultivation in Tripura without affecting the ecological balance, says a joint study by ISRO and Rubber Research Institute (RRI).
The state has already emerged as a major player in raw rubber production in the country after Kerala, the study, conducted to identify potential areas for rubber plantation in the state, said.
“Tripura, the second largest rubber producing state in the country, can have more than one lakh hectares of land for rubber cultivation,” Rubber Board Additional Rubber Production Commissioner KG Mohanan said here today.
Talking to media, Mohanan said the previous study had earmarked one hectare of land for natural rubber cultivation in the state of which 60,000 hectares of land has already brought under rubber cultivation. He said that Rubber Board has embarked an ambitious project to grow tea and rubber together.
“Though the project has been implemented in West Bengal on experimental basis, the Rubber Board aims to do the same thing in Tripura to avoid monocrop,” he said. Besides, Mohanan said only 25.26 per cent of potential area of North-East has been brought under natural rubber cultivation and the highest area of cultivation was registered in Tripura (59.29 per cent), followed by 35.25 per cent in Nagaland, 29.77 per cent in Manipur, 21.13 per cent in Meghalaya and 16.33 per cent in Assam.
Claiming that the rubber cultivation has brought prosperity in rural economy in Tripura, Mohanan said around 51,885 families have been benefiting from the rubber cultivation so far. Tripura produced 25875 MT raw rubber annually in 59,285 hectares of land during 2010-2011. (PTI)