Team Blitz India
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal on February 5 increased the minimum support price for rubber by Rs 10 to Rs 180 while presenting the state budget. This came as a sigh of relief to the rubber growers especially in the Kottayam belt where only rubber is grown. Currently, MSP for rubber is Rs 170 per kg.
It must be mentioned that there was a lot of pressure on the Kerala Government to hike the MSP of rubber for quite some time now. It is a politically sensitive issue which even led to Thalassery Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany to the extent of saying in March last year that the rubber farmers would vote only the BJP if the Centre increased the MSP to Rs 300. Interestingly, the ruling LDF manifesto had also committed to increase the support price to Rs 250.
There have been no reactions so far to the Rs 10 hike of rubber so far. Among the plantation crops, production of rubber had increased by 7.14 per cent by 2021-22, according to the recent Economic Review. Kerala’s share in the national production of rubber is 72 per cent. Rubber occupies the second largest area in the State next to coconut with 21.8 per cent of the gross cropped area.
