ISBN: - 978-93-88936-09-5 They are dependent on family labour, which limits the scale and productivity of the farming undertaken. They tend to have poorer land and uncertain land tenure (early smallholders emulated activities on nearby estates and planted rubber trees on cleared forest land to which they did not have title). In subsistence agriculture, a formal title to the land may be rare, especially where the law refers to customs, and communities decide in practice on individual land occupancy (also, entitlement to land may be restricted by legislation). As Rubber production being highly expensive the annual savings per producer is very low. Because of this fact the producers in the untapped areas have borrowed huge sum of money. The largest single expenditure among the rubber producers is manuring the purchase of tools and instrument. Another major expenditure related to the production of rubber expenses of labour shows the tendency of increase in the amount with the increase in the area of production. 6.3(B) Suggestion related to tapping • Generally, tapping is a process of controlled wounding during which the shaving of bark is done. The important factors responsible for harvesting a rubber tree are the tightness of opening, slope and direction of tapping cut, skilled tapping is necessary for the good health of maintaining the longevity of its production period. From the detailed analysis about the rubber tappers in Kanyakumari district the following useful suggestions have been made. • Adoption of rain guarding is said to have raised the number of working days. As only below 70 per cent of tappers are working in rain guarded holdings. So early tapping can be done. Moreover, rain guards can be used to increase output by 11 per cent. • Most of the tappers (men) used liquor after tapping, so that a major share of their income is spent on it followed by travel, tea, coffee, chewing, smoking and playing cards. • The Government should encourage the involvement of female tappers through the Rubber Board in order to earn more income for the family. • Since most of the employees are above 45 years of age, there may not be non-availability of employees for tapping in future. The major sources of income are tapping, casual labour, agriculture and animal husbandry. Household have to depend on sources other than tapping for the betterment of their standard of living beyond a level. • The employer/tappers should be properly motivated by the owner of rubber estates to save more money in different savings mode. • The employee/tappers should give proper training to make them more efficient in order to get good yield as well as to protect the rubber trees. 164
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