Among the new technologies recommended by Rubber Board are the Indian Rubber Research Institute's (IRRI) styrin natural, defungusing machine for sheet rubber and Indian Road Research Institute's (IRRI) rubberised bitumen technology for roads. The Board has already initiated tie-ups with Pondicherry and Kerala governments for using natural rubber in rubberised bitumen form for construction of rubberised roads.

IRRI has recently developed styrin natural, a mixture of the synthetic rubber styrin and natural rubber. Styrin natural can be substituted for styrin butadine rubber used in the production of rubber chappals. This will increase the use of NR, Rubber Board Chairman KJ Mathew told TheFinancial Express, here.

Faster defungusing of sheet rubber is expected to give value-addition in quality to NR. The IRRI has developed a machine to remove fungus from rubber sheets at the rate of 25-30 sheets per minute.

A drying trolley, which stands both sunshine and smoke-chamber conditions, has also received the Board's recommendations. The rubber drying trolley is also from the IRRI lab.

Rubberised roads have been identified as an enormous source of demand. Starting from November, Cochin Refineries Limited (CRL) will start production of rubberised bitumen for road construction. CRL has agreed to produce 15,000 tonnes of rubberised bitumen every year. The Public Works Department (PWD) of Kerala government alone has projected a demand of 50,000 tonnes of rubberised bitumen. Pondicherry government has put forward a Rs 8.5-crore project for rubberised road in the state, for which the Rubber Board has promised to supply rubber and technology.

The Board's fire fighting measures to stimulatedemand for NR follows the recent pessimistic report of United Planters Association of South India (Upasi). Despite the setback in production growth, the annual output in 1999-2000 is expected to surpass the demand estimate.

The report of the rubber committee of Upasi had pointed out that rubber growers are not optimistic about the sustainability of prices at remunerative levels in the immediate future. Till May 1999, the prices of RMA-IV grade had been floating on a band far below the benchmarked Rs 34.05 per kilo. Although the rubber prices have shown an improvement after June, the levels are still much below, when compared with the cost of production.

According to Ramakrishna Sarma, who heads Upasi's rubber panel, for the prices to catch up with the wholesale price index, it should be at least Rs 41.52 per kilo.

Steps are also on to increase the productivity of rubber farms. Apart from promoting the inter-cropping of coffee and coconut trees, the Board has also spent Rs 4 crore to foster 33,000 rubberfarms as model plantations, Mathew said. Corinospora, a leaf disease, at present is eating into the profitability of rubber growers in the northern end of the rubber-belt.

For implementing preventive measures against the leaf-disease through rubber-growing co-operatives, the Board had spent Rs 1.6 crore, he added.