Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Monday increased the minimum support price for rubber by Rs 10 to Rs 180 while presenting the state budget.  At the moment it is Rs 170 per kg, under the Rubber Production Incentive Scheme.

Being a politically sensitive issue, it was sure that any increase in MSP would be scrutinised threadbare. Especially after Thalassery Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany, last March, demanded to increase the MSP for rubber to Rs 250. The Bishop had said that farmers would vote for the BJP if the Centre increased the MSP to Rs 300. The LDF manifesto had committed to increase the support price to Rs 250. 

Among the plantation crops, production of rubber had increased by 7.14 per cent by 2021-22, according to the recent Economic Review. Kerala’s share in the national production of rubber is 72 per cent. Rubber occupies the second largest area in the State next to coconut with 21.8 per cent of the gross cropped area.