The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : `Inadequate finance hampering growth of rubber societies'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 07, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

`Inadequate finance hampering growth of rubber societies'

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, APRIL 6. The managing director of National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), Dinesh Rai, has called for bringing Rubber Producers' Societies (RPSs) under the cooperative fold while retaining their identities as small self-help groups.

Mr. Rai was inaugurating a workshop here on processing and marketing of rubber by cooperatives, organised jointly by the Rubber Board and the NCDC on Tuesday.

Rubber societies have "not been able to increase their business on account of non-availability of adequate finances for the development of infrastructure for processing and marketing," he said. Bringing them under the cooperative fold would help them access cheap finance for extending their activities, he added.

He also expressed optimism that the existing rubber cooperatives would take advantage of the various schemes available with the Rubber Board for the promotion and financing of rubber-based industries.

India is the third largest producer of natural rubber in the world and Kerala accounts for 92 per cent of the total production in the country.

The crop is the source of livelihood for about a million families in Kerala and natural rubber supports an industrial production worth about Rs.15,000 crores a year, he said. Export of rubber and rubber products has gone up to about Rs. 2,029 crores in 2001-2002 from Rs.313 crores in 1991-92.

He also said that the price of natural rubber has been looking up since 2003 with the average price of RSS4 grade at Rs.48.18 a kg. This is significantly above the price of Rs. 35.55 a kg during 2002.

The situation can improve in the future. Total consumption of natural rubber in India has gone up from 6.31 lakh tonnes during 2000-2001 to 6.96 lakh tonnes in 2002-2003. It was expected to go up to 7.18 lakh tonnes in 2003-2004.

Mr. Rai expressed surprise as to why rubber growers in Kerala were still at the mercy of the fluctuating market. The answer he said was because Kerala, which accounted for the bulk of natural rubber production in the country, consumed only 14 per cent of it locally.

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