Evaluation of thematic mapper data for mapping the rubber area under small holdings in Kerala
G.Gopinathan & K. Abdul Samad
Specialists, Kerala State Land Use Board,
India
Abstract
More than 90 percent of the Rubber produced in India is from Kerala. More than 80 percent of the area Under rubber in Kerala is accounted by small holdings. The present Rubber Board of India statistics are based mainly on the details available from the registered growers which contribute 4only less than 50 percent of the production. Hence an attempt was made to map out the extent of area under rubber in Kerala using Remote Sensing Data.
A pilot study to map out the extent of rubber in Panathur and Chittarikal area of Kasaragod district was taken up. Multi temporal false color composites of thematic mapper data was visually interpreted to map out the rubber area. Black and white aerial photographs of the same area was also interpreted to assess the effectiveness of TM data in mapping out the area under small holdings. The results revealed that multi temporal. TM FCC can be effectively used to map out the rubber in small holdings.
Introduction
Natural rubber can be extracted from the latex of over 895 species of plants, among which Have a brasiliensis is the most important commercial source of natural rubber. This is a quick k growing and a tall plant which is a native of Brazil and was introduced to tropical Asia in 1876. Recently rubber is attaining more and more importance in the world market. as a result India, especially Kerala State, is showing an increasing trend in area under rubber during the recent years. According to Rubber Board of India (RBI) \, at present 88 percent of the total area under rubber belongs to Kerala State and 90 percent of India's production is also from this state. It is also worth mentioning that in Kerala convention of area under other crops to rubber is attacking place with a high pace, probably due to high returns, the attractive incentives offered by the rubber Board of India and socio0economic reasons,. as per Robber Board of India estimate in Kerala nearly 20,000 hectares are being converted to robber crop annually since 1980.
The estimates of RBI show that during the past three decades there is a rapid increase in area and production of rubber in Kerala. The details of the last five years are furnished in the table below:
Table-i
Estimate of area and production of Kerala
as per Rubber Board of India
| YEAR |
AREA
(hectares) | PRODUCTION
(tonnes) |
| 1983-84 |
2,94,290 |
1,62,212 |
| 1984-85 |
3,11,892 |
1,72,092 |
| 1985-86 |
3,26,710 |
1,84,563 |
| 1986-87 |
3,37,700 |
2,02,129 |
| 1987-88 |
3,50,881 |
2,16,562 |
