Natural rubber plantation and replantation shrink from 30,000 to 10,000 hectares in 5 years

Kochi, Oct 14 (KNN) According to the Rubber Board, Ministry of Commerce there has been a significant drop in the pace of new planting and replanting of natural rubber from 30,000 plus hectares in 2014-15 to less than 10,000 in 2020-21.

Its yield per hectare has also dropped owing to the growers’ lack of interest due to unprofitable returns from the industrial commodity, reported The Hindu.

In the 2021-22 fiscal, the area under rubber increased to 8.26 lh with the tappable area also rising to a record 7.18 lh.

Yet, the yield per hectare was 1,472 kg against 1,442 kg in 2019-20 and a far cry from the nearly 1,900 kg witnessed between 2006 and 2007. 

Speaking about the slowing of pace, KN Raghavan, Executive Director, Rubber Board said, “Replanting in rubber estates has come down in Kerala due to prices declining and labour costs increasing, eroding the profitability of plantations.”

“Growers are tapping less due to low prices. The yield in at least 30-35 per cent of the estates is low and replanting has not been done for nearly a decade. At the same time, production costs have gone up,” said N Radhakrishnan of Cochin Rubber Merchants Association.

The growers are also not able to make both ends meet with regard to high labour wages and increase in costs of crop inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides.  (KNN Bureau)