By Firstdespatch Desk Sep 30, 2026
Agartala, Sept 30 (FD) In a major milestone for tribal development and rural economic empowerment, the Tribal Welfare Department of the Government of Tripura has been conferred the prestigious SKOCH Silver Award. The national honour recognizes the department’s outstanding success in executing the flagship Chief Minister’s Rubber Mission Project across the state.
Officially rolled out on August 14, 2021, the Chief Minister’s Rubber Mission was designed to create sustainable, long-term livelihood avenues and generate dependable income streams, specifically catering to tribal and marginalized communities through commercial rubber plantation. Beyond land expansion, the initiative strongly prioritizes farmer training, grassroots capacity building, modern processing infrastructure, and post-harvest value addition.
The project has achieved remarkable milestones, surpassing its initial projections. While the original blueprint targeted 30,000 hectares of land for rubber cultivation, enthusiastic community participation and robust administrative support prompted authorities to scale the target to 69,000 hectares. Recent data confirms that the mission has exceeded expectations, bringing 69,944.45 hectares under active cultivation and directly benefiting 89,895 rural families.
To secure premium market value and improve raw rubber sheet quality, the department has undertaken the construction of 46 large-scale smoke houses alongside 25 integrated rubber processing centres across key clusters. These processing facilities are poised to elevate local processing standards and establish direct market linkages.
The mission’s ground-level success relies on multi-agency synergy involving the Tribal Welfare Department, NABARD, the Rubber Board, ATMA, MGNREGA, TFDPC Limited, TRPC Limited, TRP&PTG, and the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). According to an official statement, the SKOCH Silver Award stands as a testament to the state’s focused drive toward tribal self-reliance and inclusive economic progress. FD SB