POLICY OPTIONS FOR MANAGING FARM INCOME UNDER MARKET UNCERTAINTIES

Abstract

The past few years have shown that the world supply sector of natural rubber (NR) could exert little influence on the market price. Since the NR market is largely driven by non-fundamental factors, efforts by governments and international bodies in stabilizing the market yield insignificant results. To sustain the world supply of NR, it is necessary to safe-guard rubber farmers’ income based on rubber cultivation activities. There are options to increase rubber growers’ income despite the ruled market price. To farmers, the improvement of latex yield, the reduction of cost, the generation of additional income from the field, and the enhancement of product quality are suggested. Governments may have measures to redesign the supply chain, provide economically viable supports to the supply chain, regulate the growth of the production, and raise the awareness of farmers of good saving practices. These options can be achieved by formulation and implementation of suitable long-term holistic polices to safe-guard farmers’ net return from rubber cultivation.