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In this issue
Natural Rubber Research is coming out for the first time with a special issue
and the theme is Climate Change which is of topical relevance. The articles
appearing in this special issue are important on two accounts: (i) According to
the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
countries in South and South East Asia where most of the world’s natural rubber
(NR) is traditionally grown are highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of global
warming and climate change. (ii) Due to the increasing global demand for NR,
its cultivation is being extended to hitherto non-traditional areas that are often
agro-climatically less congenial for its optimum growth and productivity. Thus,
NR cultivation will increasingly experience climate stress, both in the traditional
and non-traditional areas in the years ahead.
Several articles in this issue give evidence for climate warming in both the
traditional and non-traditional areas of NR cultivation in India. The article by
Satheesh and Jacob (page 1) shows how this will have a profound adverse impact
on NR productivity. In parts of North East India where severe cold during
winter is presently a limiting factor for NR cultivation, climate warming has a
stimulatory effect on NR productivity. Moderate warming could make more
areas in North East India suitable for growing NR in future.
The article by Jayashree et al. (page 18) explains the successful development
of a transgenic rubber plant that over-expresses MnSOD, imparting protection
against water deficit stress in nursery studies. This is the first such report in
natural rubber. Several articles in this issue discuss agronomic practices for
managing adverse climatic conditions in the field. These independent studies
suggest that clone RRII 430 may have an edge over the other clones in the RRII
400 series in terms of survival under hot and dry conditions. The paper by Nair
et al. (page 69) explains a fast and efficient method for screening large number
of plants for intrinsic stress tolerance traits.
Carbon dioxide sequestration and water flux rates of a young NR plantation
estimated by the eddy covariance technique is reported by Annamalainathan
et al. (page 28). This is the first such report from a perennial crop grown in
India. The article by Meti et al. (page 38) used satellite images for the first time
to estimate the vulnerability of rubber soils to erosion. Extreme rainfall events
are a likely fallout of climate change and rubber plantations which are generally
grown in slopes need to take special care against soil erosion.
James Jacob MSc (Ag), PhD, DIC, PhD
Editor-in-Chief