The Rubber Board has identified 100,000 hectares of land in the districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikmagalur and Shimoga in Karnataka to take up cultivation of rubber. | |
| According to Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, this is part of the board's strategy to expand the crop in non-traditional growing regions in the country and also to preempt the need for importing natural rubber. |
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| Presently, Karnataka has about 26,000 hectares under rubber and is mainly in the coastal and Malnad regions. |
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| The board will shortly launch a special scheme to entice growers to take up rubber cultivation on a large scale. "This year, about 2,500 hectares will be covered under the special scheme," he added. |
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| The minister said India was presently importing between 60,000 and 70,000 tonnes of natural rubber, as against a production of 850,000 tonnes. |
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| The ministry has sanctioned a subsidy of 35 per cent to growers as an incentive for expanding in the traditional rubber-growing states of Kerala and Tripura. |
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