[ad_1]
With just a few months left for the Lok Sabha elections, efforts are now being made to raise the crisis in rubber plantations at the national level.
In a submission in the Lok Sabha recently, Thomas Chazhikadan, MP, from Kottayam, urged the Union government to declare natural rubber as an agricultural crop and announce the crop a support price of at least ₹250 per kg. In his submission, initiated under Rule 377, Mr.Chazhikadan also pointed out how the Central government had declared jute, an industrial raw material, as an agricultural product and included it in the support price scheme. Natural rubber, an agricultural crop, is also a raw material for industries, he noted.
Pointing to the Swaminathan commission report which states that agriculture can be run profitably only if the produce receives one and a half times (150%) of the cost of production, he also sought a support price of ₹258 for rubber. The cost of production for natural rubber, according to him, currently stood at ₹172 per kg.
