Rubber production and demand (2 items)

Rubber production up 50 percent

Parliament corr.

Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said yesterday that production and productivity of rubber cultivation has increased by 50 percent over the past five years.

The minister made this observation in response to a question for oral answers raised by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake.

Minister Samarasinghe said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has allocated money for the first time this year, to provide relief for rain guards for rubber cultivation, extending in 10,000 hectares with the objective of further increasing the productivity and production of rubber. Minister Samarasinghe added that relief will be granted to the rest of the cultivators to set rain guards for rubber cultivation in the coming years.

He said that rubber tapping is difficult in areas which experience rain. He added that tapping is fast decreasing and recommended the use of rain guards to increase production.

Minister Samarasinghe said that rubber production increased from 104 million kgs to 153 million kgs from 2005 to 2010 while productivity increased from 1,171 to 1,582 during the corresponding period.

Samarasinghe said that this program was due to the support extended by the President. The ministry is seeking other options to increase the production by resuming rubber cultivation in non-traditional areas, he said. "Soil tests and other research, has revealed that in most parts of Vavuniya and some parts in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu have a conducive condition for rubber cultivation."

He added that 10,000 hectares in Moneragala have been devided among smallholders for rubber cultivation and 3,000 hectares have already been cultivated.

Minister Samarasinghe stated that even in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa rubber is being cultivated in 20 and 40 acres.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/12/06/news03.asp


Not enough rubber to meet export demand

By Saman Indrajith

Demand for local rubber in the international market has increased but the estate sector has not been able to produce enough to supply the orders, Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told Parliament yesterday.

The government plans to increase the supply and to meet the demands from the global market by moving out of the traditional growing areas to other areas such as Moneragala, the minister said. Under this move around 10,000 hectares in the Moneragala District have been given to the rubber small holders and of those lands around 3,000 hectares have already been prepared for cultivation. Rubber had been introduced to the Ampara district too. Around 1,000 hectares have been allocated in the district and around 250 acres have already been cultivated. Encouragement has been given to other districts too to experiment the expansion process, the minister said. Accordingly, 20 acres in Anuradhapura and 40 acres in Polonnaruwa, had been converted into rubber plantations.

Even though the country could not fully furnish the demand in the international market, local rubber exports have increased since 2005, the minister said. The country produced 104 million kilos of natural rubber in 2005 and this had increased to 153 million kilos in 2010. "There had been a 50 per cent increase in natural rubber production during those five years," he said. The yield per hectare had increased from 1,171 kilos in 2005 to 1,582 kilos in 2010.

The global natural rubber production stood at 10,400 million kilos in 2010 and the market share of Sri Lanka in the global natural rubber market was around 1.5 percent, he said.

The minister was responding to a question raised by UNP Colombo District MP Ravi Karunanayake.

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