The Rubber Board, under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has offered to set up a rubber demonstration (model plantation)-cum-training centre for growers in Karnataka, provided the State Government allots 150 acres for it.
Chairman of the board Sheela Thomas, wrote to V. Madhu, Principal Secretary, Revenue, to this effect last month.
Ms. Thomas said in the letter that the land could be allotted in the potential rubber-growing tracts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Shimoga, Chikmagalur, Uttara Kannada and Kodagu districts.
The letter said that rubber cultivation was being taken up on a large scale along the Konkan belt. The board estimated a potential of about 1.5 lakh hectares for rubber cultivation in the Konkan belt.
Demand
It said that there was a demand from organisations of rubber growers as well as from the board members representing Karnataka, for setting up a centre to help growers. The board did not have its nursery in the State and farmers depended on private nurseries for their planting material requirement. “…To address the genuine development and technical needs of Karnataka rubber growers, the board is willing to establish the centre in Karnataka…,” the letter said.
The Karnataka State Rubber Cultivators' Hitarakshana Vedike had appealed to the board to set up a centre in the State.
Its president, Shridhar G. Bhide, in an earlier memorandum to the board, had requested for a separate package for the Konkan belt.
According to Mr. Bhide, more than two lakh hectares in the Konkan belt was suitable for rubber cultivation.
He said the package should have a training centre for growers, a regional nursery, a model plantation, more tapping training centres, four more regional offices, and subsidy for purchasing rollers (for making graded rubber sheets) and building smoke houses. The vedike also requested the board to set up laboratory facilities for testing soil, leaf and latex at the Rubber Research Station, Nettana in Sullia taluk.
