The government has turned to rubber to rehabilitate left wingextremists (LWE) in the country. It plans to initiate rubber plantation in a big way in the six LWE affected states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and Assam over the next six years.
Officials related the development said that the move is a departure from the earlier scheme and offers a more sustainable approach. As per the scheme, the government will fund projects which assure employment and fund generation for the areas.
Earlier, the government used to offer funds but it wasn’t able to make a sustainable change as people went back to begging or taking menial jobs sooner or later. The scheme now shifts from one time cash grants to regular source of income for small and medium growers, said sources.
According to officials, “Rubber plantation has been encouraged going by its success story in state of Tripura, which is one of the LWE states”.
The project is a coordinated effort of the Home ministry, ministry of Commerce and respective state governments. While ministry of Home affairs is the nodal ministry, as a project owner it will be contributing Rs 50,000 per hectare per year under an appropriate scheme. It will also be involved in overall identification of areas to roll out the projects.
The states, on the other hand, will identify the land based on surveys done by the Rubber board, support extension activities of the Rubber board, handle awareness programmes and lend financial support to individuals and societies for creating nurseries.
Department of commerce, which is the parent ministry for the Rubber board, will handle the technical assistance, training and market linkages.
The project envisages developing 50,000 hectares of land for rubber over next six years in six LWE affected states.
The Rubber board has identified 20,000 hectares each in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, 2,000 hectares in Chhattisgarh, 1,000 hectares in Jharkhand, and 7,000 hectares in Maharashtra. According to officials, these areas share similar agro-climatic conditions as that of Tripura – humid summers, severe monsoon, and mild winters which is ideal for rubber plantation.
The project aims to benefit 50,000 marginalised farmers, includes plantation subsidy and will disburse daily wages at the rate of Rs 200 per day. The annual income expected is at Rs 1 lakh per hectare per year for 25 years after the gestation period.
Tripura Rubber Story
Tripura has emerged as second largest rubber producing area next to Kerala, with plantation area of 68,000 hectares in 2012-13. Rubber production in the area in 2012-13 was 33,500 tonne and estimated income generated was RS 592 crore.
According to officials, most of the beneficiaries hail from the tribal communities in the state and the present area accounts for only 68% of the total identified potential area.
The project, according to ministry officials has been a success due to large scale assistance from the state government, formation of rubber grower societies and rubber producer societies and growth-centric development programme.
Two Kerala based rubber companies Periyar Latex and Manimalayar Rubbers have formed a joint venture company in Tripura called Tripura Latex. Tripura Latex produced and distributed quality planting materials in 2012 and started procurement of latex recently from Tripura.
The Tripura Industrial Development Corporation has set up a Tripura Rubber Industrial Park in the state capital Agartala in collaboration with the Rubber Board under the Ministry of Finance at a financial outlay of RS 23 crore. Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services – Cluster Development Initiative has been appointed as project implementing agency and the park houses 20 SMEs.
12th plan
The Rubber Board is reportedly eyeing a total area under cultivation of 4 lakh hectares in 12th plan (2012-2017) period from 80,000 hectares by end of 11th plan.
The officials expect an enhanced allocation of Rs 1,400 crore for rubber development activities in 12th plan against Rs 900 crore in the 11th plan. In order to align these projections with this scheme, one of the primary objectives of the 12th Plan will be to boost per capita consumption of rubber since the commodity consumption and GDP of a country have a direct linkage. India has 1.1 kg per capita consumption of natural rubber in comparison to 4.5 kg of China and 7.1 kg of western countries, officials said.
Other than LWE states, other areas where the rubber footprint could grow are Gujarat and foothills of Konkan coast owing to the climatic conditions.
Source: Business Standard
