India’s Major Crops: Rubber
Natural rubber is a polymer of isoprene along with some other impurities. It is mainly harvested in the form of latex from the rubber tree. The latex is refined and processed to make commercial natural rubber. The economically productive life of rubber tree begins from age 7 and it remains that for around 25 years till age of 32 years. In India, most rubber plantations are in Kerala.
Global Production
Global natural rubber production stood at around 12 million tonnes in 2014 and Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are the top natural Rubber Producing countries. Vietnam is the new entry at third place, which was earlier held by Malaysia. Overall, the nine big rubber producing countries are Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Cambodia. Out of them, India, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka have witnessed a decrease in rubber production while Vietnam and China witness increase in last two years.
[table id=118/]Commercial cultivation of natural rubber was introduced in India by the British. Although, the experimental efforts to grow rubber on a commercial scale in India were initiated as early as 1873 at the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta; yet the first commercial Hevea plantations in India were established at Thattekadu, in Kerala in 1902.
Production in India
According to Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), India produced 849,000 tons of rubber in 2013, which is 7.6% down from the previous years. Kerala accounts for more than 90 per cent of the total rubber production in the country. The total area under rubber cultivation in the state is 5.45 lakh hectares. Rest of the natural rubber is produced in Tamil Nadu and North East states.
Problems of Natural Rubber Industry
In recent years, natural rubber production in India is facing sharp decline. Currently, India is world’s fifth largest natural rubber producer and fourth largest consumer behind China, the US and Japan. In 2012, however, India was on 4th rank after Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Before that India ranked third on the production table after Thailand and Indonesia. The major reason for fall in production includes:
- A serious fall in the productivity per hectare of rubber
- Constant fall in prices of natural rubber, coupled with high labour cost has forced many of the growers (75 per cent small and marginal farmers) to keep away from tapping
- Further, this industry is marred by several problems such as:
- Conflict of interests of Rubber Growers and Tyre Companies. The unrestricted massive imports by larger tyre companies pushed down domestic demand; however at the same time; MSME and other small industries which depend on domestic supply of natural rubber demand for urgent measures.
- Other reasons including high input costs; bizarre duty structure, cheap imports and signing of Free Trade Agreements with countries from which import of finished rubber products to India is encouraged.
Government Schemes on Natural Rubber
The government policy towards natural rubber can be divided into two parts viz. Support to traditional regions (Kerala & Tamil Nadu) and support to non-traditional regions (includes North East India and any other place beyond Kerala & TN). These are implemented by Rubber Board.
Non-traditional region
- Financial assistance to Rubber Producers Societies (RPS) and Self Help Groups (SHGs) of rubber producers for procurement of equipments
- Plantation development and extension programmes, which are aimed at productivity enhancement and quality upgradation.
- There is a government scheme called Rubber Development in North East (RDNE), which focuses on new plantation of rubber in North East region.
Traditional Region
For Kerala, Tamil Nadu and non-traditional regions other than North East (mainly Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Odisha and West Bengal), there is a Rubber Plantation Development (RPD) scheme. This scheme provides financial support for planting of new rubber plants and technical assistance by means of planting subsidy; planting material assistance; providing HYV of planting materials / clones and better agro-management practices. Government had released two high yielding varieties viz. RRII417 and RRII 422 during 11th RSS-4 & RSS-3 are other important varieties of rubber in India.
Other Government Measures for the safeguard of Rubber cultivators
To protect the interest of the growers, government increased basic custom duty on imported Natural Rubber. But this has aggravated the problem of domestic buyers, because on one side they are facing erratic supply of domestic rubber while on other side, they have to pay higher price for imported rubber. The NDA government has also created an expert committee of various stakeholders to draft a National Policy on Rubber.
Rubber Board of India
The Rubber Board is a statutory body constituted by the Government of India, under the Rubber Act 1947, for the overall development of the rubber industry in the country. It is located in Kottayam.
What else should be done?
Natural rubber is one of the key productive assets of our country. There is a need to encourage growers by not only protection of their interest by means of imposing duty; but also to help them take periodic stock, planting and replanting initiatives.
National Policy on Rubber
In June 2014, the NDA government had decided to set up an Expert Committee consisting of representative of various stakeholders in the Rubber Sector to examine the issues relating to production, development and exports of rubber and related products. This committee is mandated to draft a National Policy on Rubber covering production, consumption and import of all types of rubber i.e. Natural Rubber (NR), Synthetic Rubber (SR) and Reclaimed Rubber (RR).
