Rubber acreage to be hiked

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.

Presently, Karnataka has about 26,000 hectares under rubber and is mainly in the coastal and Malnad regions.

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.

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.

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.