The INROAD (Indian Natural Rubber Operations for Assisted Development) project in the North East has received financial support of ₹100 crore for improving the quality of natural rubber.

With the NR plantation drive achieving substantial scale after the completion of the fourth year of planting, the focus is now shifting towards empowering rubber growers with technical expertise and developing model infrastructure for quality improvement.

An amount of ₹100 crore has been doled out for capacity building through skill development of rubber growers and setting up of model infrastructure, said Arnab Banerjee, Chairman, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA).

He was in Guwahati to meet the project’s beneficiary farmers and gain a first-hand understanding of the progress made.

INROAD is a first-of-its-kind project in the world in which the tyre industry is contributing directly to the development of rubber plantations. It is financially supported by four members of ATMA, including Apollo, Ceat, JK, and MRF, and implemented by the Rubber Board of India.

In the first four years of the project, 1,25,272 hectares have been covered under new NR plantations across 94 districts in the North East and parts of West Bengal.

Tapping and processing natural rubber are critical areas that demand both skill development and infrastructure support. Under the project, skill-based training will be provided through digital mode, and infrastructure will be built, including Model Smoke Houses and Model Processing and Grading Centres that are tailor-made for the region.

Rubber smokehouses are vital for producing high-quality rubber sheets by drying and curing latex, the milky substance that is skillfully tapped from rubber trees.

First such model Smokehouse was inaugurated by Banerjee for a women cooperative named Bhaishkhuli Pragatishil Mohila Samittee that comprises 65 female rubber growers dedicated to sustainable rubber plantation at Goalpara, Assam.

The smokehouse will help in economic empowerment, as increased revenue from higher-quality rubber produced will benefit local rubber growers. Besides, this smokehouse serves as a training and demonstration centre to enhance the quality of rubber sheets, directly benefiting their livelihoods.