Jharkhand is one of the few states in the country with potential for rubber cultivation and the Rubber Board was presently conducting cloning tests at Birsa Agricultural University in Ranchi for varieties which could be recommended for commercial plantation in the state, officials said on Tuesday.
We have already signed an MoU with Birsa Agricuture University where plantation of few varieties has been done in one acre land. Rubber Board is a statutory body under the Union ministry of commerce & industry, which acts as the torchbearer for growers in terms of scientific research, developing clones and nurseries of plants, promotion of plantation in association with the stakeholders, including farmers and respective state governments. “There is a lot of potential in states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh for rubber plantation. We enter into MoUs with local universities for testing of the varieties that we could recommend for a particular state. The gestation period for rubber plantation is seven years.
So we still have to wait for 3-4 years to finalise which variety needs to be recommended for Jharkhand.
The officials said the plantation had no bearing on the exotic vegetation of the respective state as generally the Board pushed for cultivation on barren lands. Once that is done, it can be escalated for commercial plantation,” M Vasanthagesan, executive director, Rubber Board, said during an interaction with reporters at Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII), Kottayam on Tuesday.
