The rubber growers’ demand for remunerative prices may not have received the attention that it deserves from the policy makers. But the life of the people in Kerala’s plantations seems to have emerged as the preferred topic of research for the Semester at Sea outreach programme of the Colorado University titled “Home-stay and Land of Early Indian Rubber Programme”.

This is evident from the visit of a group of students to the spice plantations in Kootickal near Mundakkayam in Kottayam district as part of their project — their second visit in the past two years.

As many as 17 students from the US, Finland, Mexico, Denmark were at Colonial Stay, a plantation home-stay in Kootickal last week, not only to familiarise with the issues connected with the rubber plantations including the recent price crash, but also to look into the growing popularity of plantation home-stays.

George Abraham, proprietor of Colonial Stay, told BusinessLine that students interacted with rubber farmers about tapping and latex processing. “They also wanted to know more about the welfare measures adopted by small holdings for the workers. Majority of them are not fully aware of rubber as a commodity and its properties, but enquired about the issues in the sector, especially the impact of price crash on the commodity. We have also made arrangements for visit to a nearby factory which produces pale latex creep, a high quality rubber used for defence and aircrafts equipments,” he said.

Semester at Sea is a study abroad programme founded in 1963 and now managed by the Institute for Shipboard Education in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is a multi-country study abroad programme on a ship open to all students of all majors emphasising global comparative study.

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