Scaria Joseph, a retired headmaster, starts as early as 4am daily. A resident of Poovarani, just five kilometres away from Pala, the hotbed of Kerala Congress politics, Scaria has set a target to tap at least 150 of the 500 rubber trees he owns by 6.30-7am everyday.Like Scaria, a majority of rubber farmers are now engaged in self-tapping with the production cost skyrocketing and rubber price yet to witness a significant rise. “If you engage a person for tapping, he will charge Rs 2 per tree. As per the current market price, there won’t be any profit left after engaging other people. I have around 500 trees, and I tap once in three days. Still, the profit is minimal,” he said.
Scaria resumed tapping rubber trees only in December 2020 after a gap of three years, after seeing a slight improvement in the price. The price has been fluctuating constantly since early 2000, occasionally going above Rs 200 per kg and then crashing to Rs 60. It mostly remains in the Rs 100-140 range. “I had not taken the yield for nearly three years as the price was too low. It is better not to tap the trees than incur loss. In Pala, everything revolves around the rubber price. When it fetches a good price, people in the area have a swagger. To a certain extent, the rubber price will be a factor in the elections,” he said.
The market price of a kilogram of rubber sheet was Rs 158 in Pala last week and the price of latex was Rs 108. Sabu Thomas of Kendangoor in Kottayam cultivates rubber in one acre. “From one acre, we can expect around 4-5kg of rubber thrice a week. The farmer would be getting around Rs 600 from an acre, of which Rs 200 has to be paid for tapping if we employ a person for it. With other expenses, the profit will be minimal. Due to the production cost, farmers prefer to sell latex than rubber sheets these days,” he said.
Sabu said though the state government fixed the minimum support price (MSP) of rubber at Rs 170 per kg, it will not be sufficient. “Those procuring rubber have not started giving Rs 170 till now. If they increase the MSP to Rs 200, there will be some profit for the farmers. Most of the farmers have stopped tapping rubber only because the profit is not enough for their survival. In 2013, the price had hit Rs 230-240 per kg, but it crashed to Rs 50-60 in 2014,” he said.
Babu A G, who procures latex from farmers, said production of rubber plummeted due to climatic changes. “The increasing temperature has affected rubber production badly. Earlier, when a farmer used to get 10kg of rubber from an acre of land, the yield has now come down to 6kg,” he said.A major demand of farmers here is removing natural rubber from the list of industrial crops and classify it as an agricultural products such as cotton, jute and tobacco. A request in this regard has been made by various farmer associations to the Central government.
The Meenachil Rubber Marketing and Processing Co-operative Society (MRMPCS) in Pala is one of the two major rubber procurement societies in Kottayam. In its prime, the society had two rubber production factories, two supermarkets, six Neethi stores, a Neethi optical shop and a Neethi diagnostic centre. Started in 1960, the society had 70 depots to procure rubber from over 12,000 farmers in Meenachil taluk which is estimated to produce around 15 per cent of rubber in the country. However, since May 2015, the society has shut its operations. Over 35 of its employees have been working sans salary for nearly five years. Attempts are being made to revive the society. In the last assembly bypoll, Mani C Kappan, who later became the MLA, campaigned widely for the revival of MRMPCS.
“The price drop was one of the major reasons for the society’s closure. The society had investments from individuals (mostly farmers) and service cooperative banks in Meenachil taluk. As the rubber price came down, the depositors rushed in to withdraw their investments which affected the operations of our factories. Currently, the society owes around Rs 60 crore to service cooperative banks, depositors and farmers who had sold rubber to the society,” said Shaji K G, MD of the society.Efforts are on now to revive the society.
“A steering committee has been formed for the purpose. We are all set to restart our rubber crumb production factory. Later, we will open our latex factory. The society’s revival will be benefit farmers as it procures latex at a fair price,” he said.