Adopt Kerala method to boost rubber production: Tripura CM

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Tuesday asked all stakeholders to adopt the Kerala method to boost rubber production in Tripura.

The northeastern state is the second largest rubber producer in India after Kerala, with 85,000 hectares of land under plantation, producing 65,330 tonnes of rubber annually.

"We should adopt the Kerala technology in our state. During the rainy and odd weather seasons, we must be able to collect the entire production of latex and other produces without any loss.

"That will boost production and productivity of natural rubber in Tripura," Deb said while addressing a seminar here.

He said that all stakeholders associated with rubber cultivation and production should make all out efforts so that Tripura's contribution in India's natural rubber production increases to at least 30 per cent.

The Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation (TFDPC), a state-owned company, organised the seminar on "Enhancement of Quality Production of Rubber and Allied Products".

TFDPC's Senior Manager Alok Paul said that based on Chinese, Taiwan and German technologies, the corporation with an annual turnover of Rs 50 crore, was currently running a rubber wood treatment plant at its Anandanagar industrial estate.

It has been producing international standard solid rubber wood board, doors and hundreds of varieties of furniture.

The TFDPC has 9,000 hectares under rubber plantation across Tripura and produces 3,200 tonnes of rubber and allied products annually.

The Kerala-based Rubber Research Institute of India has identified 450,000 hectares of land suitable for rubber cultivation in the northeast, with 200,000 hectares in Tripura.

--IANS

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