Local rubber industry in a competitive position

RUBBER: The Sri Lanka Rubber Industry has also set a target of 150,000 mt of quality raw rubber to meet the expected rising demand of the domestic rubber products industry by year 2015 said, Consultant, National Institute of Plantation Management, Dr. N. Yogaratnam.

The current Natural Rubber (NR) boom with rubber prices reaching dizzy heights is expected to continue for several years.

Rubber Industry of Sri Lanka had been in a competitive position with rubber production in the region of 155,000 mt in 1978.

But as of now, Sri Lanka occupies the tenth position in the world's NR production. The total rubber planted area has also declined from about 274,000 ha in the early 60's to about 115,000 hectares in 2004.

"The issue in question is therefore, how should the Sri Lankan rubber industry prepare to meet these challenges. Last year saw a revival of agriculture with an estimated growth of 8% in this sub-sector.

This upsurge and the governments priority for agricultural development and improvement of rural infrastructure, generate very high expectation for agricultural revival," he said.

Southern Province of the country has large extents of land with vast potential for growing rubber, Moneragala, Bibile and Hambantota. "Since the land in these areas have not been extensively cultivated, the soils are relatively fertile than in the traditional areas.

The flat or slightly undulating terrain and relatively low rainfall experienced in these areas will also enhance fertilizer use efficiency by lowering wash offs and leaching of nutrients.

The Moneragala district experiences wet, intermediate and dry climatic conditions, characterized by the influence of both South West and North East monsoons. These climatic conditions are scattered in the entire area of the Moneragala District, which is a specific features of this district.

But, rain interference on tapping can be comparatively very low in this district, with average number of rainy days being about 100, which is nearly half the number of rainy days in traditional rubber growing areas.

The incidence of common leaf diseases such as Oidium, Gleosporium and phytophthora are more in the relatively wet areas. Such leaf diseases and the resultant productivity losses will be less in the relatively drier areas of the Southern Province.

Cash crops are widely grown by the farmers in the Moneragala, Bibile and Hanbantota areas. Such crops can successfully be intercropped with rubber.

It is known that this practice whilst providing the landowner an income during the immature phase of rubber, can promote the growth of rubber trees as well.

"This is a serious limitation to the production of quality planting material which could adversely effect productivity and profitability. With the very high pod set, the availability of quality seeds will be very high in the drier areas, resulting in higher quality planting material."

The economic benefits in term of higher productivity and higher tapper income as well as reduction of labour cost would out-weigh the investment costs in extending of rubber into non-traditional areas in Southern Province.

This can be relatively more advantageous than growing rubber even in marginal lands in traditional areas. Rubber plantations in these areas could also serve as substitute for the fast depleting natural forest cover in addition to their inherent social and economic advantages.

One of the reasons for the present low yield levels in Sri Lanka is the use of inferior planting materials. Stringent nursery management procedures should be adopted as is being practiced in India, Thailand and Vietnam.

Their strength is primarily the very effective nursery practices and management. The aim should be to achieve 500 healthy and vigorously growing uniform stand of plants at maturity and to reduce the immature period of rubber from the current 7 1/2 / 8 years to 5 1/2 / 6 years in these locations.

Land preparation and management practices that provide diverse and higher soil quality with increased organic matter content will enable the land to be better prepared to deal with drought conditions when access to water becomes a critical issue.

The farmers should be educated to make use of the green matter removed at the time of land clearing to be converted into compost (bio- fertilizer). This practice achieves good results, as seen in some plantations in Sri Lanka.

It is recognized that inter-planting is a type of agro- forestry system when properly planed and managed, has certain favourable economic, social and environmental benefits and will boost productivity. This system should be further strengthened in these areas.

Application of higher level of potassium fertiliser should also be considered by regularly monitoring the 'K' status of the soil and plants, as it is known that higher levels of potassium in plants help to mitigate the adverse effect of moisture stress.

Tapping should commence very early on tapping days since latex flow declines significantly with time of the day under moisture stressed situations.

"The rubber products sector has shown a significant growth since 1991. "With the rise in rubber based industries, the share of NR consumption in the domestic market increased gradually from a low 6% in 1997 to 73% in 2005," he said. (AGP)