Rs 100 Crore Allocated For Quality Improvement of Rubber Under INROAD

Guwahati: Indian Natural Rubber Operations for Assisted Development (INROAD) marks the first project in the Northeast wherein the tyre industry is directly contributing to the development of rubber plantations across 2 lakh hectares of land in the entire region.

A media round table was conducted in Guwahati-based Kiranshree Grand, attended by Chairman Arnab Banerjee of the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), Director General of ATMA Rajiv Budhraja, and members of ATMA & INROAD.

During a media interaction, the Chairman said, "Initially, Rs1000 crore was announced for the Northeast INROAD project. Additionally, Rs100 crore will be allocated for the quality improvement of rubber under INROAD. The natural rubber plantation drive in the Northeast under the INROAD project has achieved substantial scale after the completion of the fourth year of planning. The focus is now shifting to empowering rubber growers with technical expertise and the development of model infrastructure to improve the quality of rubber. Since the majority of the beneficiaries of the project are small landholders with holdings of less than one acre, INROAD is encouraging a group approach to create infrastructure so that the entire community is empowered. The smokehouse will contribute to economic empowerment through increased revenue from higher-quality rubber production. The smokehouse in Goalpara District has been inaugurated properly."

"After Kerala, Northeast India now has significant potential for natural rubber plantations. It takes seven years for the plant to grow, and quality improvement is also necessary. Therefore, we announced an additional Rs 100 crore for quality improvement. Farmers need to focus on quality, and we conduct training accordingly. In the first four years of the INROAD project, an area of 1,25,722 hectares has been covered under natural rubber (NR) plantations across 94 districts in the Northeast and West Bengal. This represents one of the highest NR plantations ever achieved in the country within four years. During this period, a record 5.3 crore planting materials have been distributed among resource-deprived populations with landholdings of less than one acre," Director General of ATMA, Rajiv Budhraja, said during an exclusive interview with Business North East (BNE)

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"Tapping and processing of NR are critical areas that demand both skill development and infrastructure support. The objective of INROAD is not only to enhance the production of natural rubber but also to improve its quality, which fetches better prices for growers," he further mentioned.