RUBBER CULTIVATION IN N R PURA
Narasimharajapura is located 159 Km from Mangalore,Karnataka and 55 Km from Shimoga City.The traditional crops were rice and arecanut.The history of rubber cultivation in N R Pura is inseperably dissolved with the migration of keralites from middle Kerala from 1930s onwards.First they have done lemongrass cultivation.The first rubber plantation was established in early 1980s in Gubbiga village.Commercial cultivation of rubber started in 1985s in N R Pura.Now there are 10,000 acres of land is under rubber cultivation.Most of these plantations are located in Govt. owned revenue lands.So management and tapping is substandard.The growth is very poor.Most of the plantations become tappable after 10 years only where in other places the immaturity period is only 6-7 years.The people are not doing periodical disease control measures.A rubber tree becomes tappable when the girth of the tree at 125 cm height becomes 50 cm.But the people are doing tapping generally at 40 cm girth arguing that the growth is poor.The average life of rubber plantations is 20 years in N R Pura.Substandard maintanance and tapping in plantations located in revenue lands cannot be helped as they are afraid about land aquisition.But plantations in owned land also are suffering from the substandard maintanance and tapping.There is a psychological reason behind it.Rubber is cultivated by many people including local people and migrant keralites.The people migrated from Aluva-Angamally area were not actually aware about the rubber cultivation earlier.But the local people believed that they were having first class knowledge in rubber cultivation as they had come from Kerala where 90% of rubber is cultivated.When the local people asked them they were not ready to say that they donot know rubber cultivation,instead they misguided the people.Though a lot of people are having first class knowledge,some of the people through misguiding,are destroying the rubber plantations.One exampole is here.Rubber trees should be marked for tapping at the height of 125 cm.Some people in N R Pura are spreading the idea that "In Karnataka rubber trees should be marked at 60 cm height to prevennt Tapping pannel Dryness".Nobody has discovered that tapping at lower height reduces the chance of tapping pannel dryness.Still they are spreading the idea.By doing this they are cutting the economic life span of plantations by 4 or 5 years.
The following mistakes were noticed in rubber plantations of N R Pura
(1)Inadequate manuring and fertilizer application.Intercrops like Nendran banana and vegetables are grown.Manures and fertilisers are being applied to intercrops.But sufficient chemical fertilisers are not applied to rubber in the iniatial 4-5 years.So the growth of 5 year old plantation will not be comparable with that of a 3 year old plantation which is mainatained well
(2)Lack of proper plant protection measures.The area is highly susceptible to powdery mildew but they are not doing spraying or dusting sulpher fungicides
(3)Marking for tapping at less than 125 cm height
(4)Tapping of immature trees (@ less than 50 cm girth)
(5)Poor quality of sheets
The situation should be changed otherwise N R Pura cannot be competitive in the Rubber production and marketing sector
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