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.