Trend in national rubber production is alarming
The national rubber production has declined from 98.6 to 69.2 thousand Metric tonnes(MT) from 2014 to 2024. During the same period the land extent under rubber has also come down from 133 to 84 thousand hectares. Accordingly, natural rubber production and land extent have shown a negative growth of 7 per cent and 6.3 per cent per annum respectively during this 10-year period. If this trend is allowed to continue, an industry that had earned more than a billion US dollars per annum in foreign exchange whilst supporting the livelihood of thousands of families and servicing our natural environment could be in terminal decline.
It is also recorded that in 1970 Sri Lanka had produced 159.2 thousand MT of natural rubber. The land extent under rubber has been around 220,000 hectares during this time period. Had we sustained this natural rubber production in the country the foreign exchange earnings would have reached more than $4 billion per annum currently whilst providing livelihood and improving quality of life of a greater number of resource poor families.
In this background and at this critical juncture of the rubber industry those responsible to it need to conduct an in-depth analysis to identify reasons for this debacle and to develop strategies to arrest this declining trend in the natural rubber industry in the country. This article intends to identify and briefly discuss certain facts that may have contributed and also yet contributing to the decline in the natural rubber production in the country.
Land extent
Urbanisation, industrialisation, housing, crop diversification, low financial gains are some reasons behind decrease in rubber extents in the country. Development programmes in a country cannot be halted. But relevant authorities need to identify alternate suitable land, streamline technologies to suit such new areas and promote both plantations and smallholders to invest in rubber cultivation in such non-traditional areas. To perform up to the potential, a particular crop should be cultivated under best possible soil and climatic conditions adopting good agricultural practices and relevant authorities need to be mindful of these and should come out with necessary policies.
Profitability
Land and worker productivity, cost of production and net sale averages (NSA) are some of the major factors that determine the profitability of a crop. Growers, both smallholders and plantations, do not have much control on the NSA. Further, certain components of the cost of production are also beyond their control, i.e., wages and cost of agro-chemicals. However, growers have a greater control in both land and worker productivity levels. Sadly, in Sri Lanka the land productivity levels of rubber crop had not been satisfactory and the national average has been hovering around 800 – 900 kg hectare per annum. However, there are examples of growers achieving productivity levels as high as 1,400 kg per hectare per year through good agricultural practices under suitable agro-climatic conditions. There are instances where growers blame prices and move away from rubber cultivation rather than working towards enhancing productivity levels. Whilst this should not be the thinking of the growers the state should create an environment for growers to maximise technology adoption and be mindful of prices of agro-chemicals and worker wage structures. With high productivity and providing an opportunity to enhance earnings through performance growers can create an enabling environment for workers enhance earnings.
Weather patterns
Southern, Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces in Sri Lanka, receiving rainfall from both South West and North East monsoons are the traditional rubber growing provinces in the country. The areas in which rubber is cultivated in these provinces received around 3,000 mm of rain over around 180 to 200 rainy days per annum. But from the recent past the annual rainfall and the number of wet days per annum have significantly increased up to around 5,000 mm and 240 to 260 days respectively. High rainfall has increased incidence of pest and diseases, storm damages to trees, weed growth whilst decreasing nutrient use efficiencies and harvesting days. Increased incidence of Pestalotiopsis Leaf Disease since 2019, leading to secondary leaf fall each year to-date has weakened the rubber plants resulting in around 40 to 50 per cent decrease in productivity in the wetter areas. The same disease has led to the increase in the immature phase of rubber clearings resulting in higher capital costs. Therefore, triggered by the changes in climatic conditions rubber growers in the traditional rubber growing areas will not get a worthy return for their investments. Further, such a land use pattern will neither contribute to the economic development of the country.
Opportunities
With the changes in weather patterns, it is apparent that the rainfall in both intermediate and dry zones of the country too have increased. Further, the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka has developed clones that could perform in elevations 300 metres above mean sea level. Thus, there is an opportunity to expand rubber cultivation in the country by promoting rubber in the intermediate zone of the country and as well in areas above 300m elevation to arrest the declining trend in the rubber extent and production. Making the lands available in such areas for the potential growers, facilitating to have access for technology, providing quality planting material and agro-chemicals at affordable prices are interventions the state can provide to expand rubber cultivation into non-traditional areas. It’s noteworthy that in most of the major rubber growing countries like Thailand, India rubber cultivations are in the areas having climatic conditions similar to in our intermediate zone of the country. Such climatic conditions will lead to higher land and worker productivity levels through improved stand per hectare, nutrient use efficiency, less pest and disease issues and also more importantly higher number of normal tapping days in a year.
Land use plan
Availability of land for agriculture is increasingly becoming limited with development activities. Hence the limited land available for crop production need to be wisely used in order to maximise both food and industrial raw material production in the country. Development of a land use plan identifying areas most suitable for a particular crop considering their soil, climatic condition requirements will be a step taken in the right direction. Total production, land productivity and profitability to the investor will continue to be relatively low if rubber is cultivated under traditional areas having extreme wet conditions relative to the intermediate zone of the country.
Technological constraints
In cultivations though the rubber tree looks normal and healthy some don’t produce any latex. Such trees are becoming more and more with the introduction of new rubber clones. On average the loss of rubber crop due to this disorder called Tapping Panel Dryness (TPD) could be high as 20 to 25 per cent. White root disease in rubber is also common in wet areas. If not controlled around 10 per cent of the trees could succumb to death. As mentioned earlier in this article the crop loss due to incidence of Pestalotiopsis Leaf Disease in the wet zone of the country is around 40 to 50 per cent. These are major constraints for achieving high productivity levels in rubber established in the traditional rubber growing areas. Research and Development activities to mitigate these constraints faced by the growers are urgently in need.
Value addition
The rubber product manufacturing sector in the country has shown satisfactory growth. Sadly, the country is not producing adequate raw material to cater to this growing industry. Hence product manufactures are compelled to import raw material using scarce foreign exchange in the country. Thus, by implementing strategies to increase land extent under rubber and enhancing land productivity through good agricultural practices the raw rubber production will show positive growth enabling the country to get the maximum benefit since exports will be mainly in the form of value-added products rather than raw rubber.
Take home message
The need of the hour is for the government to take the lead to implement the mandatory changes urgently needed by the rubber industry that will benefit both smallholders, plantation companies, those employed in the sector, the environment of the country and the national economy at large.
(The writer is former Chair, Plantation Management, Wayamba University and Director, Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka).
Hitad.lk has you covered with quality used or brand new cars for sale that are budget friendly yet reliable! Now is the time to sell your old ride for something more attractive to today's modern automotive market demands. Browse through our selection of affordable options now on Hitad.lk before deciding on what will work best for you!