Myanmar is targeted to put 78,150 hectares more under rubber to attain 302,053 hectares in the present fiscal year 2006-07 which began in April, an official press media reported Wednesday.

The rubber output for the fiscal year is projected at 61,717 tons, the New Light of Myanmar said.

Myanmar's rubber cultivated area reached 226,171 hectares in 2005-06 yielding nearly 60,000 tons during the year, up from 50, 000 tons in 2004-05.

According to the paper, Myanmar exported 40,373 tons of rubber in 2004-05 turning over 43.12 million U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has worked out a five-year-wise program to grow rubber with a projected cultivated area to reach 405,000 hectares and its output to 146,700 tons by the year 2020 and 607, 500 hectares and 226,800 tons respectively by 2030.

Myanmar's rubber cultivation revived after 1988 due to permission granted to national entrepreneurs to grow and trade the crop freely, said the paper.

In the past, rubber was grown only in Myanmar's southern Tanintharyi division and Mon state but now it has extended to such border areas as in Kachin state and Shan state as well as Rakhine state and Sagaing division.

Rubber, along with jute, cotton, edible crop, stands a main industrial crop in Myanmar.

Source: Xinhua