The Centre has approved a scheme under for skill development in small rubber holders’ sector the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kausal Vikas Yojana. The Rubber Board will implement the scheme with the active cooperation of National Skill Development Corporation and Rubber Skill Development Council.

The Board has submitted a scheme with a financial outlay of ₹15 crore for imparting skill development training for 16,500 labourers in Kerala and Tripura, now working in the rubber harvesting and processing sector. As a first phase, an amount of ₹2.8 crore has been allotted for the training of 10,000 tappers in the small holder sector in Kerala.

Studies revealed that production of rubber and income of farmers came down owing to the shortage of skilled tappers. The scheme will be implemented in Kerala with the participation of Rubber Producer’s Societies and as many as 150 centres under the jurisdiction of 26 regional offices of the Board have already been identified for the purpose.

The training process will start in the second week of October and will continue up to 2017 January. Skill development training for three days will be given to those who have prior experience in tapping and processing. Each batch will be comprised of 30 trainees.

According to Board officials, employing unskilled labourers for tapping will result in yield decrease and reduction in economic life of rubber trees. Many holdings were left untapped owing to the shortage of skilled tappers. Quality improvement of the primary produce is essential in increasing the income of growers and keeping the sector sustainable.

Moreover, availability of skilled tappers are essential in the effective implementation of modern tapping techniques like weekly tapping, controlled upward tapping etc. The trained tappers can become part of the Tapper Bank Scheme, the new concept of the Board to overcome the shortage of skilled tappers in the sector.

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