The Hindu Business Line : `New clones can help improve rubber productivity'

Rubber Board is also contemplating various measures, including quality improvement of processing through community processing and export promotion. The priority areas so far have been research and extension. Continuing these activities further, the Board intends to focus on improving productivity also.

The new Chairman of Rubber Board, Mr Sajen Peter, shares his vision in implementing these programmes with Business Line.

Excerpts from an interview:

The rubber growers are happy now. Price has gone up beyond the expectations of many. How long will the current trend continue?

The current price of natural rubber is high and rubber growers have reason to be happy about it. According to all indications, including the projections of ANRPC (Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries) and IRSG (International Rubber Study Group), the demand for natural rubber throughout the world is going to outgrow the production. The domestic consumption of natural rubber in the ANRPC countries has already registered an upward trend. The IRSG has projected that the prices at the international level will continue to be high and with further increase in consumption, they are likely to go up. As the growth in production cannot keep pace with the growth in consumption, the current trend is likely to continue.

The present peak period coincides with your assumption of office as the Chairman of Rubber Board. What is its impact on the rubber plantation industry?

I am happy that I took over as Chairman when the price was comfortable to the growers. The price of natural rubber in the international market had started picking up from May 2005 onwards.

The upward trend of rubber price in the domestic market touched almost Rs 70 per kg during the third week of July. Thereafter, the prices started coming down and towards the end of August there was a difference of Rs 15 between the international price and the domestic price to the disadvantage of domestic growers. This called for immediate action. Exports helped in narrowing down the gap between the international and the domestic price.

What is in store for the modernisation of the industry?

The strength of the Board has so far been on the research activities of the Rubber Research Institute of India and effective extension work by the Rubber Production Department. These should continue. There is scope for improving the productivity further through new high-yielding clones.

The quality of processing also has to improve through community processing to match international standards and facilitate stabilisation in the export market. Training of tappers, particularly women, exposure in inter-cropping during the initial years of planting, bee-keeping in rubber plantation with a view to increasing the income of the farmer should receive due attention, along with utilisation of the opportunities for carbon trading under the Kyoto Protocol.

The non-tyre sector, which is capable of achieving high growth rate, does not get much R&D support. Do you have any plan to support this sector?

Manufacturing of rubber products and related issues do not come within the functions of the Rubber Board. It is up to the Industries Department of the States to flag this issue and take remedial measures. The Board will always be willing to extend any technical advice when called for.

IRSG Secretary General has said the growth rate in natural rubber production will not sustain in India in the near future on account of low rate of replanting. What is your view?

It is a fact that the traditional rubber planting areas in the country, particularly Kerala, have already saturated. Area expansion in rubber planting at present takes place mainly in the non-traditional areas identified in the north-rastern States.

New planting in the non-traditional areas has started gathering momentum, particularly in the light of current high prices of natural rubber. But, availability of land is a constraint. It is natural to go slow on replanting when the prices are high, to reap the best out of the available opportunity.

However, when agencies such as IRSG and ANRPC project a long lasting deficit for natural rubber in the global market, growers would not like to miss the long-term opportunity. It is the duty of the Rubber Board and the Rubber Producers' Societies to enlighten the farmers on this aspect.