Kottayam: A slump in rubber prices has sent panic waves along the rubber-growing areas of Kerala. As prices touch their lowest in five years, farmers urge the growers’ societies to act more swiftly to cash in on the state government’s price stability scheme.
The government has disbursed about Rs 41 crore to farmers under the stimulus plan, including Rs 9 crore released on Tuesday. About 3.7 lakh farmers have benefited from the scheme.
Kottayam district has had the largest group of applicants. About Rs 6.4 crore has been disbursed among the 46,809 applicants from the district. The government has extended to January 31 the deadline for farmers to register with the stimulus programme. Almost half a lakh more farmers are expected to register from Kottayam.
Rubber sheet is getting cheaper day after day. Price for a kilo of sheet has fallen to Rs 97 from Rs 230-240 in 2011. Only RSS 4 commands a price over Rs 100. Even this had fallen to Rs 98 on some days, farmers say. Prices were earlier depressed to this level in July to September period in 2009.
The price of crepe has also slipped. The coagulated rubber now only fetches Rs 45, compared with its recent highs of Rs 190 in 2011-12. Though the government had promised to include crepe in the stimulus programme, it is yet to come into force.
A steep slide in petroleum products globally has taken its toll on rubber prices as well, analysts say.
‘Stop import’
The Nair Service Society (NSS) has asked for the Union government’s intervention to help rubber farmers tide over the present crisis. Rubber prices have fallen below Rs 100 from Rs 243 in 2011, prompting many farmers to abandon the crops and seek alternatives, said an editorial in Service, a mouthpiece for the NSS.
The journal asked the government to procure rubber at Rs 160 per kilo at least, so as to revive tapping in many of the plantations. This move would help the country increase production, avoid imports and stem the loss of foreign exchange.
Imports of rubber should be suspended for a fixed period or the import duty increased by 50 percent as a protective tariff, the editorial said.
Though the Kerala government started a Rs 300 crore stimulus fund in July to check a slide in prices, only Rs 30 crore has been disbursed among farmers so far. Farmers are not getting the full benefits of government aid due to this unscientific plan.
When a similar crisis developed in 2002, the Union government had limited the import of rubber through the eastern ports of Kolkata and Visakhapatnam and imposed strict quality checks on imported rubber, thus checking a further fall in prices, the editorial said.
The article also said about 11.5 lakh small-time farmers in Kerala are staring at a loss of livelihood. Even large-scale plantations are heading for a crisis. They are still in business only to protect jobs, it added.
