MSc

A study was conducted among the small growers of Vaikom taluk to elucidate the extent of adoption of scientific tapping and processing techniques by the rubber growers. One hundred holdings, representing different geographicala regions in the taluk and different size groups were selected and the farmers as well as the tappers were interviewed, with the help of a structured interview schedule.
The average size of the holdings was 0.59 hectare. The cultural operations as per the scientific methods were fully adopted by the growers as these areas had been planted and maintained under the financial aid, technical advice and close watching of the Rubber Board up to the level of harvesting.
As regard to tapping, cent percent adoption of modern techniques was observed in the case of standard of tappability, height of opening, slope of tapping cut and time of tapping. In the case of systematic panel protection measures, only 22 percent and in the case of rainguarding only six percent of farmers adopted the recommendations.
Alternate daily tapping was more prevalent. Efforts have to be intensified to persuade farmers to change over the tapping system to third daily, in the case of high yielding clones that are succeptible to brown bast. Adoption of modern practices like use of tapping head light and rainguarding is gradual eventhough the financial strain of the planters stands in the way of adoption.
The study further revealed that 24 percent of the planters have fully and 38 percent partially adopted plastic cups as receptacle for latex collection. This is a sign of good rate of adoption of modern techniques. But the post harvest operations were found to be according to the will and wish of the planters. Therefore deviations from the scientific method of processing was evident at a higher rate.
Use of anti-coagulant was not much prevalent among the planters as revealed by this study. Pre-coagulation had never been a problem for the small holders as they used to get sufficient time to process the latex before it got pre-coagulated.
The extent of adoption of scientific processing techniques was not seen to the extent of adoption observed in the case of tapping procedures. The percentage of adoption of certain important operations required for the production of high grade sheets like bulking, standardization of latex, sedimentation, dilution of acid to the correct level, washing of coagulum and use of PNP was found to be zero. These lapses in processing stand in the way of production of high grade sheets by the small growers.
From the study it was found that majority of the contacted farmers were interested to produce high grade sheets if they were assured of a price according to the grade. So it is evident that the planters are satisfied by the ungraded sheets as they are not sure of getting higher price for higher quality sheets. Surprisingly it has been observed that, the percentage of grade sheets are more (50 percent) in cases where the processing is done by owners themselves, as against 27.6 percent, where processing is done by paid tappers. The reason for this difference is nothing but the careful handling of the crop and added cleanliness when it is done by owners themselves. It has also been revealed that the minimum requirement for the production of at least RMA-4 sheets are cleanliness, sieving of latex with 40 mesh sieve, washing of wet sheets in clean water, drying of sheets either in smoke house or in chimney (kitchen smoking). Sun drying for one or two days prior to smoke house-drying or kitchen drying was found adequate. Sun drying for 3 or more days completely dilapidated the quality of sheets; as a result of which the sheets would fetch a low price. All these factors emphasize the need for more extension support in the case of postharvest operations in rubber plantations.