As per prevailing trends, Natural Rubber (NR) production in India will not be sufficient to meet the consumer industry's demands as consumption is expected to reach 1500,000 tonnes by 2025-26. The production-consumption gap is presently met by imports, and that involves a huge amount of foreign exchange outgo. Hence there is an urgent need to increase the area under rubber cultivation on a war footing, both to meet the domestic demand and reduce the dependence on imports and restrict the outgo of foreign exchange, said Dr. Sawar Dhanania, Chairman, Rubber Board. He was delivering the presidential address at the 181st meeting of the Rubber Board held at Kottayam. The Central Government felt the need to increase natural rubber production in the country by expanding rubber cultivation to non-traditional areas, including North East and traditional regions. Board has identified a vast stretch of land in North East and West Bengal for rubber cultivation. 'NE-MITRA' is a project conceived by the Board to develop rubber plantations in those areas with financial support from consuming industries. Meantime, the efforts for extra income generating activities like beekeeping, intercropping etc., should be continued. He added that promoting the rubber wood industry and carbon trading is the need of the hour to make a green environment and bring sustainability to the rubber sector.
Dr. K.N. Raghavan IRS, Executive Director, presented the report on the current domestic status of NR. NR production in the country improved to 775,000 tonnes during 2021-22 compared to 715,000 tonnes during 2020-21, recording a growth of 8.4% compared to an increase of 0.4% registered during the previous year.
An increase in yield, tappable area and area tapped during the year contributed to the rise in NR production.
The area under rubber during 2021-22 was 826,660 ha. Though the tappable area under rubber was 718,800 ha during 2021-22, only 526,500 ha (73.2%) has contributed to the NR production during the year. The average yield, measured in terms of production per hectare of the tapped area increased to 1,472 kg/ha in 2021-22 from 1,442 kg/ha in the previous year.
India consumed 1,238,000 MT of NR in 2021-22, an increase of 12.9% from 1,096,410 MT consumed in 2020-21. The auto tyre sector registered 15.9% growth during 2021-22, against 3.2% recorded during 2020-21. At the same time, the general rubber goods sector registered 5.6% growth during 2021-22 compared to a high negative growth of 16.4% recorded during 2020-21. Auto-tyre manufacturing sector accounted for 73.1% of the total quantity of NR consumed in the country during 2021-22. The projection of NR production and consumption for 2022-23 is 850,000 tonnes and 1290,000 tonnes respectively.
Import of NR increased to 546,369 tonnes during 2021-22 compared to 410,478 tonnes during 2020-21. 60% of the import was through duty paid channel. 87.5% of import was in the form of block rubber. The gap between the quantity of NR produced within the country and that required by the consuming industry is the primary reason for importing huge quantities of this commodity.
Dr. Raghavan also elaborated on the activities taken up by the Rubber Board during the Covid pandemic. At a time when the markets were closed with RSS 4 price Rs. 123 per kilogram, Board made provision for a loan of Rs. 10 lakh to various companies under the Board so that they could procure rubber directly from the farmers. This was continued till the markets were reopened. During the period Board requested the Department of Cooperative in the State Government to instruct primary agriculture cooperatives to lend money to buy rainguarding materials. This resulted in the lending amount at low, and even nil interest rates were made viable to farmers. Board companies also rendered assistance, and as a result, 2.25 lakh hectares of rubber plantations could be rainguarded in 2020.
Development of Genetically Modified rubber plants, whole genome sequencing and commissioning of Rubber Products Incubation Centre, REACH Compliance Laboratory and Molecular Plant Pathology Lab were done during the period. Landslide susceptibility of rubber plantations in Kerala was delineated with assistance of Digital University of Kerala and the landslide zonation maps with good agricultural practices were also launched.
Mr. Vinay Dinu Tendulkar (Member of Parliament - Ragya Sabha), Prasenjit Biswas IFS (Rtd), Mr. Anil Kumar G and Mr. N Hari, the newly nominated the members attended the Board meeting. Mr. N.K. Premachandran (Member of Parliament- Lok Sabha), Mr. Prabhat Kumar (The Horticulture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare), Mr. Neeraj Gaba (The Director Plantations, Department of Commerce and Industry), Mr. M.S. Banerjee (Under Secretary, Plantations, Department of Commerce) attended the meeting in virtual mode. Mr. Rajive Budhraja, (ATMA) and Rajendra Bhamare (AIRIA) were special invitees.