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Abstract
A million small scale farmers have been cultivating rubber which is a perennial crop with an economic life of 30 years. Recurring spells of low rubber price place them in tremendous financial crisis. Fluctuations in international and national market prices of rubber and steady decline in rubber prices for the last one decade coupled with price manipulations by rubber industrial cartels, especially the tyre companies, have driven the small scale cultivators to the verge of suicide. The tyre companies want the price of natural rubber to be kept at a very low level.