The decision to persist with the support price mechanism coupled with establishment of a company on a Public-Private-Partnership mode in the Kerala budget 2019-2020 has offered some consolation to the State’s beleaguered plantation sector.
Already staring at a crisis on global headwinds, the woes of the sector escalated with the floods last year making a significant impact on overall production levels. The natural disaster, according to the authorities, inflicted damages in the form of tree loss, work and the sector is headed for a drop in production levels upto 1.37 lakh tonnes in the current fiscal.
“At this point, the allocation of ₹500 crore to tide over a fall in price below ₹150 per kg will ensure, at least to an extent, that an average farmer stands firm,” said a senior official with the Rubber Board. As per estimates, an average of 1,000 hectares of land is being hived off from the State’s plantation sector every year.
Introduced by the previous UDF government in its last year of office, the scheme has evoked a huge response with around 4.5 lakh small scale planters registering for availing the benefits under it.
Last year too, the State allocated ₹500 crore for the purpose, of which, ₹299.48 crore has been distributed through the Rubber Board.
Given the current trends of price fluctuation, the authority expects the overall disbursement till March 2019 to go up to ₹400 crore.
Five acres
The growers who own five hectares of land are eligible for the scheme.
The area under tapping is limited to two hectares for each applicant while the production levels are fixed at 1,800 kg per hectare per year.
Value-added products
The decision to start a CIAL-model company in Kottayam to spur production and marketing of value added products, comes from the realisation that the present crisis faced by the sector could not be overcome without expanding to production of value added products. The KSIDC has already prepared a detailed project report of the company, of which, the government will be holding 26 percent share.
The KINFRA has been entrusted to find out a space of 200 acres for establishing the facility, which envisages a common processing facility for small scale producers.