Rubber Board heaves sigh of relief

Natural rubber production in the country during the fiscal 2013-2014 is likely to be lower than what was projected earlier

Rubber Board chairman Sheela Thomas said that in spite of the global economic slowdown, there were some pointers indicating positive signals in the rubber sector. 8.1 per cent growth in rubber consumption by China in the first half of this year, 4.1 per cent growth in latex consumption and rise in vehicles sales in China and the US suggest good times for the rubber industry, she added.

Inaugurating the 5th edition of the annual India Rubber Summit here, she said narrowing price gap between natural rubber and synthetic lattices, technological advancement that have solved most of the inherent disadvantages of NR latex, steady increase in the use of NR latex in medical products etc brightens the future for NR latex based products sector.

Natural rubber (NR) production in the country during the fiscal 2013-2014 is likely to be lower than what was projected earlier, said Sheela Thoma. Intensive rain and the widespread incidence of abnormal leaf fall are the reasons for decline in production.

However, the increase in tapped area from 504,000 ha in 2012-2013 to 518,000 ha in 2013-14 and the higher level of moisture content in the soil may increase the production in the coming months. The projected closing stock of NR in 2013 -14 is 270,000 tonnes.

Domestic production of NR during April - August 2013 is 265,000 tonnes. Consumption during this period was 408,805 tonnes. Consumption of NR for 2013-14 is projected at 945,000 tonnes. Import and export of NR during April to August 2013 were 128,465 and 2,319 tonnes respectively.

Talking at the annual meeting of Rubber Board today she said as per the report from International Rubber Study Group (IRSG), the world production of the natural rubber during April to August declined by 0.9 per cent owing mainly to adverse weather conditions.

The growth in NR consumption during the period was minimal at 1.1 per cent. World economy is beset with challenges of economic recession and geopolitical concerns. The present situation indicates that the NR market is likely to remain volatile, she added.

Traditional breeding of rubber tree for genetic improvement is a tedious and lengthy process. Availability of annotated whole genome sequence of rubber is expected to open up new vistas in clone research.

Genetic database will help in speedy development of elite clones with superior yield and adaptability to stressful environmental conditions.

Already, there are groups working on the whole genome sequencing of rubber in Malaysia, the UK and China. It is expected that India will catch up with the rest of the rubber world in this cutting-edge area of research, according to a release.

The assembly and annotations will be done in association with the Rubber Research Institute of India scientists.

The genome of rubber, which contains the entire genetic information about the species, is large and complex and the same is expected to contain about three billion nucleotide base pairs that constitute the genes, regulatory elements and non-coding sequences in this species.

An agreement has been signed with the National Institute for Research and Development in Defence Ship Building (Nirdesh), Kozhikkode, for developing rubber-based mountings for use in indigenously-built submarines at Mazagon Dock Limited, Mumbai.