The Rubber Board has announced financial assistance to rubber farmers under various schemes with a view to promoting farm mechanisation in the rubber small holding sector and to contain the shortage of labour forces to a certain extent.
The Board is launching a scheme to give financial assistance to set up demonstration plots for productivity enhancement during the 12th Five Year Plan period. These plots will be known as rubber agro management units. The Board’s target for this five-year scheme in traditional area is 15000 ha, of which 3000 ha. will be covered during 2012-13.
The scheme will be implemented with the support of Rubber Producers’ Societies (RPSs) and the companies in the RPS sector. The extent to be identified by each RPS for the scheme is 15 to 25 ha. Under the service area of each RPS, the scheme is limited for 50 adjacent small holdings with a unit size ranging from 0.10 to 2.00 ha. The holdings should be under regular tapping and in the age group of 10 to 20 years with number of trees not less than 300 per ha.
The Board has also introduced a scheme for giving financial assistance to Rubber Producers’ Societies (RPSs), Rubber Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Companies promoted by Rubber Board for purchasing weed-cutting machines and sprayers/dusters. The amount of assistance for buying weed-cutting machines will be 50% of the actual cost of the equipment limited to a maximum of Rs.14,500. The assistance for sprayers/dusters is limited to two four-men operated machines and four one-man operated machines per company.