Indian rubber farmers stage protest for minimum price support

Kerala, India – Indian rubber farmers from different states staged a protest at Jantar Mantar on Thursday, demanding a rise in the minimum support price for their produce.

The protest organized by the All India Kisan Sabha was attended by rubber farmers from a number of states, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Tripura.

”The Centre had promised to revise the price of rubber and ensure that it was at least 50 per cent higher than production cost. ”Going by this, the minimum support price for rubber should be Rs 360 per kilogram. But we are demanding Rs 300 per kilogram, taking into consideration the production cost,” Vijoo Krishnan, the general secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha told PTI.

Kirshan also complained that rubber was being imported from south-east Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam at very cheap rates and it was hurting local farmers and demanded that it should be banned.

Krishnan claimed that farmers in Kerala have suffered significant losses to the tune of around Rs 10,000 crore over the past decade due to unfavorable rubber prices.