Page 74 - economic review

AGRICULTURE AND ALLIED SECTORS46

2.27 The declining rubber production in the year has affected India’s ranking internationally as it has
been pushed to the fifth position with countries like Vietnam and China occupying the third and fourth
position respectively. Thailand continues to be the top producer followed by Indonesia in the second
spot in the global rubber scene.

2.28 The declining price of rubber is a cause of concern. A revival of rubber prices is expected
consequent to the revision of import duty and other measures announced in 2013-14 by Government
of India. However, to a large extent the price depends on global supply and demand of natural rubber
and the price of synthetic rubber.

Coffee

2.29 Domestic coffee production for the year 2013-14 was estimated at 304.5 thousand tonnes
which represents a decline of 13.7 thousand tonnes compared to the previous year. The long period
of drought followed by extremely harsh monsoon coupled by the onslaught of White Stem Borer
(WSB ) disease led to this drastic decline in the crop. As per FAO estimates, yield in India is 837.8
kg per hectare much below Vietnam (2187.9 kg per hectare) and Brazil (1256.7 kg per hectare).
Interestingly, a comparison of the productivity levels in 1971 vis –a vis 2011 suggests that India
(-2.75) and Indonesia (-13.15) are the only two countries who have reported a decline in yield levels
in last 40 years. Lower productivity in India is due to limited mechanization, pest infestation, and
labour shortage.

2.30 With regard to Kerala the production of coffee registered a slight decline from 68175 MT in
2012-13 to 66645 MT in 2013-14. The share of Kerala in total coffee production in the country is
around 22 per cent during the year. Major variety grown in Kerala is Robusta with a share of 97.1 per
cent in planted area. Productivity of the crop in terms of bearing area in Kerala is 808 kg/ha which is
lower than the national level of 852 kg/ha during 2011-12. Among the States, Kerala stands next to
Karnataka which produces 70.4 percent of total coffee production.

Tea

2.31 As one of the largest tea producing countries, India accounts for 24.8 percent of the total world
production. In 2011, domestic tea production breached the one billion mark and was placed at
1126.3 mkg.

2.32 Kerala accounts for 5.03 per cent of the area and 6.3 percent of the total domestic production
of tea in the country and it has been consistently falling for the last three years. There was some
respite from this in 2012-13 as tea production recorded an increase of 5059 MT as compared to the
previous year despite a decline in area of 18 per cent , mainly on account of increase in productivity.
In 2013-14, there has not been much change in the area production and productivity of tea from the
previous year. Details are given in Appendix 2.14.

2.33 The major issues plaguing the tea industry are stagnant productivity, acute labour shortage,
high cost of machines, and lack of indigenous machinery.

Cardamom

2.34 India is the second largest producer of small cardamom and plays an important role in the
international trade of cardamom . Cardamom production in the country during 2013-14 was estimated
at 14.5 thousand tones compared to 14 thousand tonnes in 2012-13, an increase of 500 tonnes.
Cardamom prices has dropped during 2013-14 to 692.54 per kg. As a result the exports recorded a
drastic decline of 52 per cent in 2013-14.

Kerala State Planning Board