The Rubber, Chemical, and Petrochemical Skill Development Council, in association with the Tripura OBC Cooperative Development Corporation, will seek to skill rubber growers belonging to the OBC community in tapping and processing, besides creating necessary infrastructure. The project involves the introduction of rain guarding, skilled tapping, and scientific latex processing and will train 100 rubber workers, of whom women will account for over 21 per cent to achieve gender equality.
Raising yield, production
Kuntal Das, Managing Director, OBC Cooperative Development Corporation, said with skill development and handholding support, the efficiency of tappers could improve in terms of yield and production. Better market linkage as provisioned shall improve the livelihoods, particularly of women, leading to socio-economic improvement. Tripura has a large ‘untapped’ potential both in terms of production and quality of rubber. The state produces less than 1,200 kg per hectare of planted area as compared to national average of 1,500 kg.
Stifles growth prospects
Ashrita Tripathi, Head-Training and Quality Assurance at the Corporation, said the lack of properly trained tappers, the absence of rain-guarding of rubber plants, a lack of focus on quality and poor industry linkages have stifled the growth of the natural rubber sector in Tripura.
Currently, only 30-40 per cent of rubber produced in Tripura is in the form of quality rubber sheet that matches the requirements of the industry. A large percentage is a low-quality ‘lot’ rubber or ‘ungraded’ rubber. With skills training and support, 60-70 per cent of the production could be graded as sheet rubber - mostly RSS 3 and RSS 4.
Poor rain-guarding
At least 50-60 days of production is lost every year due to non-availability of rain guarding (20 per cent of tapping days). The Corporation currently provides training to ensure that latex productivity goes up to 1,500kg/hectare and raise monthly incomes by 16 per cent.
Skillful tapping will ensure yield for as along as 30 years, against 12-18 years as of now. Latex processing would bring about an upgrade in rubber sheet quality up to RSS4 fetching growers an extra ₹40 per kg. Overall increase in monthly incomes as an outcome of the project is estimated at 32 per cent. Growers are currently undergoing intensive skill training in the job role of Latex Harvest Technician (Tapper) for 240 hours lasting two months.