International Journal of Commerce and Economics

authors
Sandhra Mariya George, Samantha Theresa George

abstract
Rubber cultivation is the most dominated cropping pattern in central districts of Kerala especially in Kottayam District. Rubber had occupied the second largest area in the state with 21 percent of the gross cropped area. But the share of Kerala in natural rubber production has come down from 92 percent a decade ago to 69.99 percent owing to various reasons such as termination of subsidy, continuous fluctuations in price, farmers moving to alternate crops, increase in cultivation of rubber in non-traditional regions such as North-East. All these factors have affected the working and living conditions of the labourers in this particular sector. This paper aims to understand the socioeconomic background, working condition and wage structure of rubber tappers in Kerala. 60 respondents were selected using convenience sampling. Both primary and secondary data was used for the study. The result showed that the socio- economic condition of rubber tapper show only a slight improvement but still the situation in not good enough to improve their standard of living. Due to the continuous fluctuation in rubber price and seasonal variation, rubber cultivators are not encouraged to concentrate more on improved rubber production.