Even as the State government has announced a ₹10 hike in the stabilisation price for natural rubber, the budget announcement appears to have failed in cheering up the beleaguered natural rubber growers who were fervently hoping for a substantial increase. While presenting the Budget on Monday, Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal acknowledged the crisis experienced by the rubber growers and announced the decision to raise the support price of rubber to ₹180 despite the financial constraints. According to him, Kerala is the only government which is making interventions to resolve the crisis faced by rubber farmers ``The Centre is adopting a policy that favours the largescale rubber industry by promoting increased imports, as evidenced by the judgment passed by the Competition Commission against tyre companies. Currently, Kerala provides a support price of ₹ 170 per kg of rubber. Although a request has been made to the Central government to increase this amount to ₹250, there has been no positive response so far’’, read the budget note. The announcement, however, failed to enthuse the growers, who feel the hike would be too insufficient to help cover the cost of production.
``As the production cost of rubber remains above ₹200, the revision of base price to ₹180 is not going to trigger any revivals. Since this increase in the support price does not have a retrospective effect, farmers will receive it only from July and given a predicted rise in the international prices, the government is most unlikely to incur a huge loss due to this’’, said Babu Joseph, general secretary of the National Consortium of Regional Federations of Rubber Producers Societies India. While the opposition parties including the Kerala Congress led by P.J. Joseph have described the hike of ₹10 as worthless and insufficient, the announcement served as a face saving measure for the Kerala Congress (M), a constituent of the Left Democratic Front government. “In light of the neglect faced by Kerala, including in the central budget, the State government has taken the initiative to raise the support price of rubber by a small margin. While this announcement brings some comfort, it is crucial for the government to continue taking steps towards further increases,”, noted Jose K. Mani, chairman , KC(M).
Thomas Chazhikadan, MP, who was publicly rebuffed by the Chief Minister for raising the rubber issue during the Nava Kerala Sadas in December 2023, too expressed satisfaction on the latest budget announcement.
