Auto Sector Crisis & Rubber Growers; Government’s Guaranteed Income to Rubber Farmers in Thailand

The Auto Sector crisis starts to hit Rubber growers too says Joseph Alex, a rubber farmer from Kerala. Prices are nose diving fast and from 153/kg a few months back and its now dropped to 127/g and further to 125/kg and he assumes it is going on to fall further 2-3 Rupees every day since last week. Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are the top natural Rubber Producing countries. Vietnam is the new entry at third place, which was earlier held by Malaysia.

Thailand  has a monsoon climate, which is most suitable for vegetative growth of rubber plant. Southern Thailand region has the maximum plantation. The Rubber Journal Asia reports about the Thailand’s rubber farmers who have sold their rubber at loss for the past five years. They are at present assisted by a project by the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives.-a price guarantee project. Isn’t it high time India starts thinking on these lines? 

Rubber Journal Asia  reports that about 1.4 million documented and undocumented farmers will benefit from the initiative. The guaranteed price project will be implemented form the October 2019 onwards and rubber farmers will be eligible to join after registering with the Rubber Authority of Thailand. According to their Minister Chalemchal under the project  a volume of 20 kilograms of rubber is guaranteed per 0.6 hectares of plantation per month while the guaranteed prices are US$ 1.96 per kilogram for raw rubber sheets, US$1.86 per kilogram for fresh resin, US$0.82 per kilogram for cup lumps of rubber. Farmers who want to be included in this project need to submit their details to the Bank of Agriculture and the money will get transferred into their accounts from the banks from December 2019.