Plantations stare at huge losses with few hands to harvest standing crops

chronic shortage of rubber could impact the manufature of medical gloves, catheters and masks that are crucial in the battle against Covid-19

The 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has impacted tapping and maintenance of rubber plantations in Kerala, the state that accounts for about 80-85 per cent of the natural rubber produced in the country. 

This may result in losses of Rs 3,000 crore and also a shortage of rubber for medical products like gloves, catheters, sanitation masks in the coming weeks, growers said.

However, this is not just the plight of rubber growers, as plantations of crops like coffee, pea, black pepper are also staring at losses on standing crops as they face an acute shortage of labour.

Ajith Balakrishnan, secretary, Association of Planters of Kerala (APK), said the rubber sector estimated the loss at Rs 3,000 crore. The industry is now seeking urgent approval from the government to start tapping operations at their plantations, as there have been some showers and if left unattended, it might lead to outbreak of fungal diseases.

“Kerala produces the rubber for medical gloves, catheters, sanitation masks. We are going to face a shortage in the next two weeks and when the demand peaks, may result in shortage of natural rubber in the market,” he said.

 

 

“We are requesting the government to allow 3-4 workers per hectare for rain guarding, and one worker per hectare for tapping. We can follow the guidelines on Covid-19. We have been given permission to deploy 50 per cent of workforce for tea plantations, which facilitates us just for plucking and spraying and factory processing,” he added. For coffee and cardamom, planters have been given permission for spraying.

In tea plantations, the association is estimating a Rs 125-crore loss and if the management has to pay workers’ wages, the loss could be over Rs 200 crore. The United Planters’ Association of Southern India (Upasi) has written to the Coffee Board that 21,000 tonnes of coffee worth Rs 400 crore have accumulated at curing centres and various ports. The harvest of robusta coffee and pepper has been severely affected due to non-availability of workers. Picking at high elevation arabica areas is still in progress, say planters.

Trade in coffee has come to a standstill. They added there was no transport to curing units or to ports. This has led to exports coming to a standstill. Hence, exporters have received no payments, and there has not been any support from banks or Customs. The lack of transport and resultant disruption of supply chain has also led to a total collapse of domestic trade and consumption. 

Upasi asked the government to treat coffee plantations and allied activities as agricultural operations and allow them to continue, with adequate safeguards. It said social distancing could be best maintained at plantations because of the size of fields.

It called on banks to provide interest subvention of 3 per cent to all loans to the coffee industry, apart from rescheduling payment on crop loans, term loans & interest falling due between March 15 and June 30 by six months.

Upasi also urged the government to settle all committed incentives under various developmental schemes of commodity boards should be settled immediately, immediately clear coffee replanting subsidy claimed by growers on expenses incurred. These claims were not settled by the Coffee Board due to non-availability of funds.  

They said export incentive schemes like Merchandise Exports from India Scheme should be continued at higher rates of 5 per cent to incentivise export as was prevalent up to December 31, 2019.