Rubber growers of Karnataka seek a minimum support price of ₹250 per kg

With rubber growers in Karnataka under distress owing to fall in prices over the years they will hold a State-level conference in Ujire on November 29. The growers have mainly demanded that the government declare a minimum support price (MSP) of ₹250 per kg for natural rubber under the market intervention scheme and declare natural rubber as an agricultural commodity.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, Shridhar G. Bhide, president, reception committee of the conference, said that the price of natural rubber in Karnataka now stood at ₹182 per kg. The Kerala government increased the support price for natural rubber from ₹180 pe kg to ₹200 per kg effective from November 1, 2025, under its Rubber Production Incentive Scheme.

Many growers in Karnataka are cutting rubber trees owing to fall in prices and increasing production costs. The government in Karnataka should also intervene to save rubber growers by declaring MSP.

Senior economist Vigneshwara Varmudy said that the Kerala High Court has declared that rubber plantations are agricultural lands under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFESI) Act, 2002. The court declared it in the case of K.P. Muhammed Basheer vs Deputy General Manager (Authorised Officer), Kannur District Cooperative Bank Ltd. case of 2010. But governments have not brought rubber cultivation either under the Department of Agriculture or Horticulture. Hence rubber growers have been deprived of many government incentives.

Mr. Varmudy said that the Union government should impose import duty on the compound rubber being imported at zero percent import duty from ASEAN countries in the interest of domestic growers.

Mr. Bhide said that Karnataka State Rubber Belegarara Hitarakshana Vedike, Ujire, Belthangady Taluk Rubber Growers’ Marketing and Processing Cooperative Society Ltd. Ujire have organised the conference in association with all cooperative societies which are dealing with rubber in Karnataka.

M. Vasanthagesan, executive director, Rubber Board, Kottayam, will speak on ‘future of rubber cultivation in India’ at the conference which will begin at 10 a.m.