Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 3
A three-member team from the Rubber Board of India (RBI) met officials of Land Resources Department led by its Secretary, Y. Kikheto Sema IAS on Wednesday in Kohima during which the team clarified to queries pertaining to rubber plantation.
Joint Commissioner, RBI, Rajan said that the Board was trying to sensitize the rubber growers in reducing the cost of labour component by tapping the latex once in a week or once in three days instead of alternate days. According to Rajan, there would not be much difference in yielding between alternate days tapping and once in a week. He pointed out that alternate day tapping involves huge labour cost which ultimately reflects in low profits.
Rajan advised rubber growers to apply stimulants once or twice in a year for better quality of rubber. Responding to queries from district officers regarding low price of rubber in Nagaland, the RBI official said it was due to the distance between the state and rubber consuming areas involving high transportation costs.
Rajan also said that the RBI was in the process of identifying crops or plants which can grow under rubber without affecting either crops or plants since such practise would contribute to value addition for rubber growers.
Deputy Commissioner of RBI, Dinesh said that the Board was planning to start a branch of Rubber Board and Rubber Producers’ Society adjacent to Dimapur so that rubber could be collected from that point and any available schemes could also be availed from there.
He advised technical officials to arrange poly bag rubber stems in nurseries by placing two poly bags in each row as more than that would compromise healthy sprouting for those stems placed in between.
Dinesh also spoke on the need for grading of rubber quality and also emphasized the need for field office in every rubber growing district. However, he spoke of fund constraints with RBI and disclosed that a maintenance bill of Rs 2 crore is still pending in Dimapur office claimed by rubber growers but that the RBI has not be able to pay owing to shortage of budget provision.
He informed that rubber growers can seek suggestions or post any queries at kuthomas@rubberboard.org.in regarding rubber plantation.
Secretary, Land Resources, Y. Kikheto Sema IAS thanked RBI officials for their visit while expressing surprise as to why such meeting could not be held for the last three years. He said that at a time when rubber plantation has been taken up on a large scale in the state, such coordination meeting should have taken at regular intervals giving opportunity to clarify doubts from each other.
Kikheto suggested that quarterly meeting be held between the two sides and invited the officials to visit rubber plantations along with department officers to know the ground realities and receive valuable inputs from them.
uoting department figure, Kikheto said that there were 66 lakh standing rubber plants assisted by the department out of which 6 lakh trees are being tapped and could generate more than Rs 50 crore annually.
“Most rubber growers are stated to be jhum cultivators earlier and the farmers shifting to eco-friendly rubber plantation is encouraging since they now earn better and create employment opportunities especially in the rural areas,” he said. Kikheto also said that an amount of more than Rs 500 crore could be generated annually once harvesting starts for all the 66 lakh standing rubber plants.
Stating that the present status of rubber plantation has not covered even 5 % of total cultivable area, Kikheto cautioned officers that rubber should not be planted in areas like paddy fields and other cultivable land for fruits and vegetables.
He also cautioned the district officers not to allow farmers to buy rubber stems from unauthorised nurseries which may have negative impact on the production.
Earlier, Director, Land Resources, Mhathung Yanthan highlighted on the rubber plantation in the state while a power point presentation on rubber plantation was presented by Deputy Director.
