PR / IH Desk
KOTTAYAM, May 27 2020: The entire stake holders in the rubber sector should move together and think of ways to cope up with the situation emerged owing to Covid pandemicDr Sawar Dhanania, Chairman, Rubber Board said today while addressing the 180th meeting of the Rubber Board, held through video conferencing. Rubber Board and other stakeholders in the sector should target achieving the goal of meeting 75 per cent of the demand of NR through domestic production, he added.
Dr KN. Raghavan, Executive Director, Rubber Board presented the report on current status of NR. Natural rubber (NR) production in India reached 712000 tonne, with a 9.4 per cent growth, during the last fiscal (2019-20), said Dr Raghavan.
The production has first time crossed 7 lakhs since 2014-15. Rubber Board has been making continuous effort to make rubber cultivation remunerative by increasing production and productivity and reducing cost of cultivation/ production. The Board has been implementing several activities at regional and field levels, with the active cooperation of Rubber Producer’s Societies (RPSs), to increase production and productivity of plantations, he added.
The tapped area increased by 40,000 hectare during the last fiscal. Rainguarded area was 2.50 lakh ha in 2019-20, higher by around 40,000 hectare as compared to the previous year. The plantation adoption programme of Board also brought 4000 ha area under tapping.
Consumption of NR declined from 1211,940 tonne in 2018 -19 to 1134,120 tonne in 2019-20 and the production-consumption gap declined to around 422,000 tonne from 561,000 tonne in the previous year. Production of NR for the current fiscal (2020 – 21) is projected at 710,000 tonne taking into consideration of the crop loss owing to Covid 19. Import of NR declined by 20% in 2019-20 as compared to the previous year and 70% of the import was through duty paid channel while export increased from 4551 tonne in 2018-19 to 12,194 tonne in 2019-20. World production of NR is projected at 13.43 million tonne (declined by 2.2%) and consumption at 13.13 million tonne (decline by 4.6%) in 2020 by International Rubber Study Group (IRSG).
Dr Raghavan also described the actions that Board has taken to mitigate the distress situation faced by the small growers owing to Covid 19 pandemic and lockdown. He also informed that proposal was submitted to Ministry to protect rubber growers from vagaries of price fluctuation through institution of minimum import price and restriction of imports with minimum price mechanism in domestic market.
Board also took action to procure sheet on a limited scale through Rubber Board promoted companies on payment of advance amount. Board took efforts to promote rain guarding by providing soft credit to small/marginal growers at zero or low interest rate through village level Cooperative Banks and Rubber Board Companies.
The Board has decided to establish an Incubation Centre to develop new and innovative processes and products in collaboration with present and prospective entrepreneurs in rubber sector.
This would commence functioning soon.