Determinants of Participation of Rubber Farmers in Rubber Producers’ Society (RPS) in Kerala

The study has identified the factors that discriminate RPS members from non-members in determining rubber farmers ’participation in RPS using the survey data from eighty small holder rubber farmers out of which forty were membersof RPS and forty non-members. To identify the variables that are important in discriminating RPS members from non-members, a linear discriminant function analysis was employed. The magnitude of coefficient of the function is an indicator of the relative importance of individual variable. The study has found that the major factors which influenced the farmers to enrol as members were reduced processing cost (47.54 per cent), increased output (44.55 per cent), reduced cost of plant protection chemicals (12.94 per cent) and benefits from rubber board (1.57 per cent). The variables such as cost of cultivation and capacity building narrowed down the distance between the two groups.