• NET Web Desk

In an attempt to enhance agricultural production and creating additional marketing avenues for cultivators, the Rubber Board Tripura regional office have decided to uplift the mushroom practice among women growers residing in remote regions of the northeastern state.

Considered as the next high-value agricultural crop, mushrooms can transform incomes of small and marginal farmers, therefore in case of Tripura – the cultivation of this agricultural crop might ensure better livelihood generation for the rubber growers.

Recently, through a joint initiative undertaken by the Rubber Board & Tripura’s Horticulture Department, over 30 to 40 rubber growers hailing from different areas of the state, mostly tribal women were brought to Horticulture Research Center, Nagicherra where they were imparted practical training on ‘Mushroom spawn culture’.

According to the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences report, “In the spawn-production process, mycelium from a mushroom culture is placed onto steam-sterilized grain, and in time the mycelium completely grows through the grain.”

Technically, mushrooms are neither plants nor animals and they don’t emerge from seed but from spawns or spores.

Speaking on this issue, the head of Rubber Board regional office Agartala, Shailaja asserted that a major thread adjoins rubber & mushroom. It is the rubberwood subtracts aggressively utilized during mushroom cultivation.

Therefore, “the Rubber Board is attempting to promote mushrooms as an auxiliary source of income generation of tribal rubber growers, especially women growers.” – he added.

Shailaja further mentioned that rubber growers who attended the training belonged to a rubber producer society based out of Radhamohanpur, Jirania.

“In Tripura, there are above 80,000 rubber cultivators if both mature and immature plantations are summed up. And, in those rubber farmers, a sizable contribution is made by the women,” – asserted Shaijala while mentioning about massive contribution of women growers in the escalation of this process.

However, in 2021, the concerned cultivation have been expanded to 2,364 hectares of land under the Chief Minister’s rubber mission.

The Automotive Tyre Manufacturing Association (ATMA), have distributed the planting materials among the interested growers for free-of-cost, thereby supporting immensely to the production, – added the Board head during it’s interview with ANI.

During the programme, rubber growers were also imparted training on upgrading the rubber quality produced in Tripura.

Besides, if official records are taken into context, the annual rubber production of Tripura ranged between 80,000 metric tons to 90,000 metric tons, informed the Rubber Board Head Shaijala.

Its worthy to note that Tripura was one of the first few states to have commercially adopted rubber cultivation in NE India way back in the 1960s.

Furthermore, the second largest rubber producing state in India after Kerala, as per area under cultivation and quantity of produce, Tripura has got 85,000 hectare land area under rubber cultivation, out of which 65,000 hectare plantation area is currently mature for harvesting.