RUBBER PLANTATIONS

RUBBER PLANTATIONS

TOPIC: Geography

Context- India has been unanimously elected for the new Chairmanship of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG).

• Head of the Indian delegation to IRSG, and Executive Director of Indian Rubber Board, KN Raghavan, will officiate as the Chairman of IRSG for the next two years.

Concept-

International Rubber Study Group (IRSG):

• IRSG is the inter-governmental organisation of natural rubber (NR) and synthetic rubber (SR) producing and consuming countries.
• The group was formed in the year 1944 with Singapore as headquarters.
• The IRSG provides its member governments with a forum for discussion on matters affecting the world rubber industry and acts as an interface between government and the Industry.
• It is the only International commodity body approved by Common Fund for Commodities for development financing in rubber sector.

Rubber Tree:

• Rubber is a tropical tree.
• It requires high temperature throughout the year – ranging between 20°-35°C or average monthly mean of 27°C.
  • Less than 20°C temperature is detrimental.
• Rubber also requires heavy rainfall.
  • The annual average rainfall of not less than 200 cm is optimum. Rubber tree thrives well when the distribution of rainfall is uniformly high all over the year.
• Deep, friable, well-drained soils are ideal as they promote root devel­opment, and acidic soils are also suitable.
• Thailand is the highest rubber producer in the world, which produced 31.29 per cent of world production. Indonesia is the second largest producer.
• In the world production of natural rubber, India ranks Fourth.
  • Traditional rubber-growing states comprising Kerala and Tamil Nadu account for 81% of production.