The Karnataka Rubber Planters’ Association (KRUPA) has urged the Karnataka government to provide minimum support price to rubber to help growers in the State.

Addressing presspersons in Mangaluru on Tuesday, Gopalakrishna Bhat, Secretary of KRUPA, said the Kerala government is extending a support price of ₹150 a kg for the rubber growers in that State. The Karnataka government should also extend such a support price for growers in the State, he said.

Though the rubber growers have submitted memorandum to the Karnataka government earlier, it did not yield much result, he said.

Nitteguthu Sharath Bhandary, President of KRUPA, said the price of the natural rubber has crashed from a high of ₹245 a kg in January 2012 to ₹118 a kg in October 2019.

Bhandary said the association had submitted a memorandum to the previous coalition government in Karnataka seeking support price for rubber. Following this, the Karnataka Horticulture Department had written to the Rubber Board suggesting a market intervention scheme for rubber crop. It had also suggested a fund of ₹10 crore to the Central government to implement the scheme. However, that initiative did not proceed further, he said.

Apart from seeking a support price of ₹160 a kg to rubber in Karnataka, KRUPA will seek increase in the fund allocation for market intervention scheme, he said.

Justifying the demand for a hike in the fund for market intervention scheme, Bhat said 93 per cent of rubber growers in Karnataka are with small holdings. In such a situation, the amount of ₹10 crore should be increased to help the small growers, he said.

Bhandary said that nearly 60,000 growers in Karnataka have taken up rubber cultivation on around 55,000 hectares in the State. The rubber is grown in Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga, Chikmagaluru, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Hassan and Mysuru.

Karnataka produces around 40,000 tonnes of natural rubber, and its consumption is around 60,000 tonnes, he said.

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