MANGALURU: Annual general body meeting of All
Karnataka Rubber Planters Association
(KRUPA) will be held at
Jain Bhavan
, Bappalige, near
by-pass road at Puttur
on November 11. The meeting will discuss and strive to mitigate woes of
rubber growers
’ in Karnataka, which its
president Nitteguthu Sharath Bhandary
said, is going through a crisis with crash in price of natural rubber and also suffering from lack of support from the state government to cause of growers.
Addressing reporters here, Sharath Bhandary said the association will hope that Ajith Kumar, chairman of Rubber Board who will inaugurate the conference will provide a vision and direction to the beleaguered rubber growers. Karnataka is one of the most potential states in the South besides Kerala and Tamil Nadu in terms of rubber production. An estimated 2-lakh hectares of arable land is available for expansion of
rubber cultivation in Karnataka
, he said.
With nearly 60,000 growers currently estimated to be in to rubber cultivation spread over 55,000 hectares in six districts including Chikkamagaluru, he said production of natural rubber is close to about 40,000 tonnes, which accounts for 7.2% of national production. The consumption is around 60,000 tonnes. The state has achieved 25% of estimated potential is expected to emerge as second largest state in South India with regard to area under rubber cultivation by 2025.
Despite these positives, the major concern for rubber growers, he said is the fact that natural rubber prices have crashed from Rs 245/kg in January 2012 to Rs 116/kg in November this year due to many reasons beyond growers’ control. In neighbouring Kerala, growers are assured of minimum support price of Rs 150/kg where the government compensates for difference between MSP and market price, a facility that growers in Karnataka have been unsuccessful to get, he noted.