Increased rain guarding help raise rubber production in July

KOCHI: Rubber Board’s efforts to raise production during monsoon months by increasing rain guarding in the plantations have paid dividends with production in July showing an increase.

The natural rubber production in the country in July was 60,000 tonnes , up by 14,000 tonnes from the same last year.

The harvesting operations in rubber in Kerala get hindered during rainy months resulting in steep fall in production. Confronted with a drastic decline in production during the last few years, the Rubber Board took steps to ensure uninterrupted tapping during the monsoon period. The board companies in Kerala procured rain guarding materials like polythene sheets and adhesive in bulk and distributed among small growers to promote rain guarding. As a result, nearly one lakh hectares were rain guarded more than the previous year.


Fall in production was one of the major concerns of the Indian rubber sector. This is mainly attributed to high percentage of untapped area, low adoption level of modern techniques like rain guarding and unscientific tapping methods. The present level of low price also has contributed to this.

For addressing this issue of untapped plantations, the board recently introduced a programme for adoption of such units in the small holding sector. The board in association with its own companies and rubber producers’ societies would take over such untapped holdings and arrange for the maintenance, tapping, processing and marketing of produce. Societies and companies have so far successfully adopted 1600 hectares of plantations during the last few months. This arrangement has resulted in reducing cost of production and in increasing the quantity and quality of the rubber produced.2

The board is also popularizing techniques like low frequency tapping (including once -a -week tapping) and controlled upward tapping to further improve production and bringing down the cost. The annual rubber production target of this fiscal is 7.5 lakh tonnes.