The cultivation of natural rubber (NR) on commercial scale was started in India in 1902. Until 1946 it had been developed as an estate crop with complete patronage of colonial governments. As a result, by 1955-56 only 29587 smallholders undertook the cultivation of NR with 38488 ha. But by 1990-91 the number of smallholders had abysmally increased to the extent of 780587with an area of 397465 ha. Adding to this, since 2011 onwards price of NR has been consistently declining. It was Rs. 242 per kg in April 2011 but afterwards it has been hovering around Rs. 110 to 140 per kg (excepting a few months under RPIS). It has further been aggravated by persistent increase in the import of NR which was only 19770 MT in 1996-97 but afterwards it gradually increased even to the level of 5.46 lakh MT during 2021-22 which constituted more than 70 per cent of the annual production. Consequently, production, productivity, area under new planting and replanting etc. have been declining considerably. Reducing the cost of cultivation is very much limited by escalating cost of cultivation especially in the traditional rubber growing regions. As long as the prosperity of domestic NR market depends on global NR market which in turn depends on global economic conditions, the scope of recovery of the domestic upstream sector in the immediate future appears to be very bleak. Given the situation this paper examines the trends in price and yield of NR and their influence on the income of small and marginal farmers of natural rubber in India. A similar study was conducted in 2010 for the period from 1980-81 to 2007-08 when there had been no crisis in the NR sector as is being witnessed thereafter. Using the linear regression analysis the extent of relative influence of price and yield on the incomes rubber farmers was estimated. It needs to be underlined that, uneconomic and non-remunerative price undermine the production and productivity which warrants large scale import of NR to meet the growing consumption. Since import cannot be regulated or restricted in the context of growing consumption and fall in production, adequate measures need to be pursued to increase the production and productivity within the country. Therefore, the study suggests that direct and indirect support measures need to be pursued at least until the gap between domestic demand and supply narrows down through new planting and replanting, higher yield and adoption of scientific cultural operations. It assumes paramount importance as value addition is very much limited in the case of small growers.