Plantation & Spice Tour

Rubber

Kerala stands as number one in the production of rubber. The tropical climate of Kerala also lends well to the cultivation of pepper, cardamom, cashew and areca nut, interspersed with coconut plantations. Out of the total area of 0.51million hectares under rubber plantation in India, 93 per cent is confined in Kerala. The State contributed the largest share of 90 per cent to the country’s record production of 4.35 lakh tonnes in 1993-94, making it the fourth largest natural rubber producer in the world.

The production scene is predominated by small farmers with 0.8 million holdings producing 82 per cent of natural rubber. Cooperatives have come in a big way to benefit these small farmers of rubber in Kerala. Rubber Marketing Societies collect rubber at primary and district levels, paying the farmers good prices. And at the apex level operates the Rubbermark – the Kerala’s Cooperative Rubber Marketing Federation – which is rated at par with the International Natural Rubber Organization. The federation, acting as an intermediary maintains a balance between the farmers and the industry. Rubbermark has the largest infrastructure in India for procuring, storing and selling natural rubber with 35 member societies and 150 rubber collection depots spread all over Kerala.

Another landmark in the rubber scenario is setting up of a model industrial village exclusively for rubber based products in Meenachel Taluka under a self-employment scheme in Kerala’s Kottayam district, the land of latex. The latex produced by small growers fetches them only a poor return as a result of high input costs. But with the coming up of such units the latex can be transformed into value added products which would bring a better return to the small growers of rubber.