Kerala anticipates more investments in plantations with the government proposing to go ahead with a policy for sector’s diversification, Industries Minister P Rajeev has said.

The State will hold discussions with all the stakeholders in the sector based on the report submitted by IIM-Kozhikode. Utilising this opportunity will bring large-scale investments into the plantation sector, he said.

The Minister was speaking at a regional conference on Plantation, High-tech Farming and Value-added Rubber Products Industries here.

The round-table, which seeks to boost the government’s efforts to make Kerala a global destination for innovative technology, was part of an ongoing series to facilitate a suitable ecosystem. The discussions on plantation, which comes under a list of 22 priority sectors of the State as per the New Industrial Policy, was held as part of the government’s preparations to next year’s Global Investor Meet.

The Minister’s statement comes in the wake of IIM-Kozhikode suggesting to go for tropical fruit trees, also of the exotic variety, alongside existing plantation crops. The institution, in its study submitted to the government last month, had also sought promoting a public-private partnership model to establish a Kerala brand for plantation crops and promote silviculture as well as agroforestry.

The session was followed by a panel discussion, which was addressed by Rubber Board Executive Director M. Vasanthagesan, Plantation Corporation MD James Jacob and Rubfila International MD G Krishna kumar. The participants stressed the need for the emergence of value-added industries to make the rubber sector profitable.

Since Kerala accounted for 71 per cent of the country’s natural rubber production, the State needs to promote manufacturing of value-added rubber products, the panellists emphasised. Similarly, replantation of the degenerated estates and adoption of smart farming methods are essential to maintain the State’s preeminent position in natural rubber production, they added.

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