socio-economic profile of rubber tappers in the small holding sector

are seriously trying to sort out some measures to increase productivity by limiting cost of
production. In Malaysia where the problem of skilled rubber tappers is crucial, chance of
deviation from cultivating rubber as a monocarp for latex to planting rubber for timber as
a primary product and latex as an important by product can be seen. They are trying to
adopt labour saving techniques even in tapping. But the nature of smallholdings may not
permit large-scale mechanization. Moreover, whatever may be the technique, there is
limitation in reducing the number of tappers. So the demand for tapping labourers may
continue in the future also.
3.2 Supply Side
It is argued that the labour supply in a rural economy is influenced by land
holdings of labour households. All of the sample tappers in the study area except 1.05
percent have their own land, though 76 percent of them posses a land area, below 50
cents. The income from this land, however low it may be, helps them to keep the reserve
price of labour comparatively at a level.
The caste structure of labour households is a determinant of labour supply. Here 32
percent of tappers are Roman Catholics, 29 percent belong to Ezhava community, and
only 20 percent belong to Scheduled Caste. Decline in the share of scheduled caste labour
indicates a supply constraint. Land reforms in the state provide scheduled castes some
land and homestead. Comparing with agricultural labour market of Kerala as a whole, the
share of Scheduled Caste is low. The reason behind this phenomenon is the difference in
and wage rate between agricultural labour and tapping labour. In spite of land reforms,
most of the sample households having a land area below 5 cents belong to scheduled
caste. They cannot depend solely on income from tapping for their livelihood because, the
prevailing wage rate of tappers is comparatively low and there is the absence of income