Rain guard to the rescue

Priyadarshani KAHAWALA, Ingiriya central group cor

Erratic rain patterns are interfering with the rubber tapping season, particularly the harvesting of latex.

The Rubber Development Department (RDD) to overcome this introduced a 'rain guard' to be used in rubber cultivating lands in the wet zone.

Tapper W Nagaraja who made a record income.

Rubber trees in Udabage Estate with rain guards

The 'rain guard' introduced by the Rubber Research Institute in 1992 helped rubber cultivators minimise losses during tapping when raining.

The 'rain guard 'is made out of polythene and is similar to a plaited skirt in appearance.

However, it is regrettable that some people have not utilised this technology, fearing a baseless and imaginary damage.

It has been observed that in most rubber estates in Sri Lanka, this technology is neglected almost totally.

Tapping on rainy days is not recommended, because the fungi which usually grows on leaves and pods, enter the fresh cut along with water gushing along the trunk of the tree, causing bark rot.

Due to unexpected rains, tapping in the island has been difficult this year.

But an unprecedented progress in tapping is shown by the Udabage Group, Daraniyagala (Lalan Rubbers Pvt Ltd.) using 'rain guards'.

There is a 5,000 acreage covering Udabage Estate and every rubber tree in these 5,000 acres has rain guards. W Nagaraja, a tapper of Udabage Group says he worked all 30 days last month despite the rainy weather and earned an extra Rs 30,600 a month.