Fortunes are stretching a bit too thin for rubber
The Hindu
KOTTAYAM
It is a given that natural rubber has brought with it good fortunes to Kerala. But then, that’s an old story. Import glut, climate change, and finally the pandemic, have rattled the sector several times over the last couple of decades, sapping Kerala’s enthusiasm for the rubber crop. Fluctuating prices, combined with soaring input costs, have made these rubber holdings far from profitable.
And, these plantations will probably never turn profitable unless they diversify, according to Santosh Kumar, Executive Director, Harrisons Malayalam Group. “Cultivation of rubber, a commodity that is in abundant supply world over, is an extremely labour-intensive operation,” he noted.
Also, youngsters are keeping off the sector. “This fading enthusiasm is clearly evident from the sharp drop in the ratio of replanting. A thorough restructuring of the existing plantations, allowing alternative crops and non-plantation activities in a certain percentage of land, is crucial for a profitable model,” added Mr. Kumar. Officials with the Rubber Board too admit to a growth in the number of holdings that have ceased harvesting. “This is particularly because the replanting of saplings has become too expensive and there is a shortage of skilled tappers,” said an official.
As per conventional estimates, about 11 lakh farmers are growing natural rubber in Kerala while the area of tappable rubber plantations extends up to seven lakh hectares. As many as three lakh workers are required to tap latex from these trees. The availability is much lower.
“Workers are shying away from tapping, not because of poor wages, but aversion to the rigours of physical labour. Mechanisation is the only way forward,” he observed. The growers, meanwhile, regard themselves as a pawn in the global price war of rubber. “Because we are often small, disparate producers. we do not have the power to influence the supply chain,” said Babu Joseph, general secretary, National Consortium of Regional Federations of Rubber Producer Societies India.
In Kerala, the months after monsoon are the traditionally high-production period. Things, however, have been different this year. The prices have been on a free fall, reaching a 16-month low of ₹148.5 per kg (RSS grade 4) in the Indian market. The price of latex, which soared during the pandemic period due to huge demand from glove makers, has come down to below ₹100.
The figures do not exactly match the stories of agrarian hubris that have long dominated Kerala’s rubber heartlands. Instead, the common narrative is a struggle against low prices and high debt after years of credit-fuelled expansion of the crop.
Amidst demand by the BJP for an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged unauthorised transfer of funds belonging to the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (MVSTDC), Home Minister G. Parameshwara on Friday said that the State government will not hand over the investigation to the CBI “voluntarily.”