Productivity-linked wages will be a ‘win-win’ situation in plantation sector: APK Chairman 

The production of tea, cardamom and coffee has been stable, but rubber output has fallen during the pandemic. The average price of tea fell to ₹117 per kg against ₹130 per kg a year ago. Rubber prices have increased to ₹166 after a prolonged slump. Cardamom prices have collapsed to an average of ₹1,042 from ₹1,478 last season, and Coffee have improved a tad this season.

However, in the current year, the production is down by 15 per cent in the case of tea, 25 per cent in rubber and around 35 per cent fall in cardamom due to other reasons such as climate change, high input costs etc.

The prices of Muriate of Potash (MOP), mainly used in plantation crops, has gone up by 110 per cent from ₹16,200 in 2018 to ₹34,000 per tonne. There is also a shortage of Urea and MOP, preventing the timely application of fertilizers. Rock phosphate prices have gone up 11 per cent since 2019. Also, prices of Agrochemicals have gone up around 40 per cent since the pandemic due to supply chain issues.

This has resulted in a significant increase in our cost of production. Reduction in the application of MOP will be detrimental to the production and quality of the product.

Mono-cropping with high labour costs and climate change are having a significant impact on the financial position of producers. Multi cropping and liberalization in land laws to allow other activities need to be speedily implemented for the sector’s survival. Kerala has the highest plantation wages in the entire country. The productivity here is lower than our counterparts Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and far below the North-eastern states.

As nearly 65 per cent of the cost of production comes from labour, it is a major impediment. Hopefully, all stakeholders will realize and work towards improving productivity and keeping wages at a reasonable level so that the employers can afford to pay the same and the workforce are able to sustain a decent living.

Climate change has become an enormous concern in the past few years. The Kerala floods of 2018 devastated the sector. The heavy monsoon in 2019 and 2020 resulted in the loss of crops and lives in plantations. The continuous rainfall without sunshine from the beginning of June till Mid December in 2021 severely dented the production of all crops.

The increase in temperature coupled with huge diurnal variations has further dented the output.

We require the government to implement the recommendations of the Justice Krishnan Nair committee report without any delay as four long years have elapsed, and immediate implementation is the need of the hour. The panel made recommendations for abolishing plantation and agriculture income tax, granting permission for multi-cropping etc.

We need to move from mono-cropping to multi-cropping, agro-forestry and eco-tourism, and outdated land laws need to be amended in a time-bound manner to kick-start investment and employment in the sector.

As the plantation industry is labour intensive and 65 per cent of our production cost is on wages, we need to explore the possibility of productivity-linked wages so that it is a ‘win-win’ situation for both the employees and the employers.

The plantation directorate will be a nodal agency to sanction various reforms being planned for the sector. We are now being treated as an industry and will have a body where all our concerns will be addressed. Also, being under the industries ministry, there will be a lot of impetus for the growth of the sector. We sincerely thank the Kerala Government for being proactive and forming the plantation directorate.

Yes, the use of drones will benefit the plantation sector in Kerala. Some of our members are doing trials washowing initial satisfactory results, but more detailed results are awaited. This could be a game-changer in the medium term.

The plantation sector was affected only for ten days during the first lockdown. Subsequently, operations resumed and barring lockdowns in micro containment zones, the industry worked continuously and provided employment to its workforce without any disruption or reduction in wages.

There have been no retrenchments or lay-offs. Also, we were able to provide temporary jobs to family members who returned from the cities due to the lockdown. As tourism and farming are the leading job creators in rural Kerala, the plantation sector played a vital role in employing as the tourism sector was battered due to the pandemic.