Problems Faced by Rubber Small Holders in Sri Lanka - My Experience (2)

The incidents happened for last two weeks added another dimension to add more to write on the problems faced by rubber small holders in Sri Lanka. This is a very serious situation, not only the rubber small holders like me but also big plantation companies face in this country on daily basis. This problem is not only confine to the rubber estates, the tea estates are also in the same situation. That is "stealing the plantation products from the estates". During the last weeks, a few trust worthy villagers informed me that the rubber has been stolen from the land for last two years. That was not a surprising news, I had some information; even my brother and my ex have seen our tapper's family carrying dried crape rubber sheets. But I was helpless to take an action. I had to keep on depending on him.

This is the same situation every where in Sri Lanka. Unless the owner is there in the Estate 24/7, the labourers steal whatever they can take from the estates. If it is a rubber plantation, they will steal latex, dried rubber on tapping routes of the trees and collection containers, and dried rubber sheets. This happens during the broad day light as well as at nights or even during the rainy days that rubber trees are not tapped. The tappers of the garden as well as neighbouring villagers steal rubber products. In tea estates, they pluck the tea leaves at nights, leaving nothing for owners. 

When it comes to the bigger plantations, the stealing happens in a much organized way. If you visit the rubber stores/buyers in the nearby towns, you can witness the nature and magnitude of the crime. The villagers as well as labourers tap rubber trees bordering to the villages. It is an organized crime. The criminals often have the blessings of the local politicians to terrorize Estate owners and managers. 

The shameless, cunning tappers of our land were so shrude, the played every trick in the book to prevent me selling rubber trees for timber. They wanted to continue the old tactic as long as they could. Growing grass and mining rock won't help them to get easy cash for a long period. They influenced the silly villagers to come to the road to block trucks carrying rubber trees. I had to get the help of the police to resolve the matter. I feel sick of handling the issues of the land. Although untold, many small holders face the same situation in Sri Lanka, suffering endlessly in the clutches of the unruly villagers and power hungry and money greedy politicians. I have my faith only on my business partner who is a cleaver and cool headed man with lots of experience of managing people.

Problems faced by the rubber smallholders in Sri Lanka: My experience

I wanted to write here a long time ago, but kept on postponing as there was so much to write. But my embarrassment to accept some of the hard facts also prevented me in writing. When I saw this Estate of mine, I fell in love with the land. I wanted it to be remained as a rubber plantation and had plans to improve it further. But the existing rubber plantation failed to give me a reasonable return for my investment. After romantically and emotionally embracing this land with all my heart, I hate to admit that the investment is a failure and caused massive hardships in my life. 

The rubber plantation in the land did not give a reasonable production to be economically viable for tapping. The production cost of crape rubber was very high, leaving only one third of the income as a profit. This did not cover even the interest of the loan that I took from the bank to buy the land. I believed the rubber variety that has been planted in the Estate was a low yielding variety. The years of negligence at the early stage of plantations did not boost the healthy growth of the trees, and the trees became barren with very low yield. The Estate is on a rocky mountain with a thin layer of soil on the surface. This has further reduced the chances of root system of the trees to grow deeper to grow healthily. The constant rains in the area further reduced the monthly income. The average tapping days were reduced to 15 days in a month for last two years due to rain. 

Although the government of Sri Lanka gives rubber plants to replant and fertilizer, it needs at least another 15,000 to 25,000 $ to uproot the old rubber trees in my 12 acre land, and to prepare the land for replanting. It needs to wait nearly seven years until rubber plantation grows to a harvesting stage. With the constant rains in the area and high labour cost, I don't see replanting is a viable option for this land. It is very difficult for an owner to maintain any plantation living far away from the land. The owner should be there in the land all the time micro managing every aspect without relying on workers. 

With all the difficulties of managing the land, I tried my level best to sell the land over a period of one year. Lots of people visited the land, but the access road was the hindrance to sell it. The road is narrow and in a very poor condition. It is hardly motorable. The Estate has a huge rock over an extent of more than 8 acres. A friend of mine who tried very hard to sell the land finally suggested to form a company to mine the rock and use the remaining land for horticulture for landscaping. He was the only person whom I could trust to start such a venture.

For last two months, we had several meetings to agree with the terms and conditions. We prepared the necessary documents including MOU and lease agreement and made arrangements to register our company; Deranie Global Enterprises (pvt) Ltd. We sent papers for the company registration this week. We had discussions with the local authority people to get the road improved at our cost. Luckily we have a steady supply source from the nearby Crusher Plant which is 4 km away from our land to supply 50 cubes on daily basis.  We are trying to get some landscaping contracts too for us to provide plants.

My business partner and I are determined  to make it happen. I know the first three months are the hardest time of our business. There will be lots of ups and downs on our way, including social problems from the villagers. But we are getting there and we will make it happen!

Smallholders in Plantation Management

Where more than 70 percent of total world rubber production comes from Southeast Asia which includes countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka; more than twenty million smallholders grow rubber. The farmers in Sri Lanka who hold lands extending from 0.5 to 20 ha (1 to 50 acres) belong to the smallholders. The rubber small holders in Sri Lanka have been contributing significantly to the national production. Their contribution in 2008 had been 71.7 percent of the national production, while the contribution of Regional Plantation Companies (RPC) was 26 percent.

While the large scale plantations had undergone significant structural changes in mid 1990s, due to underperformance as state-owned entities; the smallholding sector thrived in Sri Lanka particularly in tea plantations contributing substantially to the economy by achieving close to international standards. However, it was found that the progress of rubber smallholder development was less than the achievements of large scale rubber plantation development. The productivity of rubber smallholdings of Sri Lanka is in the region of 1,290 kg/ha where as in Malaysia it is around, 1,330 to 1,440 and in Indonesia it is in the range of 1,250 to 1,500 kg/ha.

The majority of rubber smallholders are still so poor in the regions, in spite of the fact that the world rubber prices are significantly high. The situation of smallholders is same in Sri Lanka. Farmers still use low agricultural technologies such as low yielding clones, indigenous practices and lack of management strategies in their production systems. They are inefficient in decision-making processes, have very little initiative in innovations, and a low level of education.

The rubber smallholders in Sri Lanka face the following problems;

·         Lack of proper institutional and policy frameworks,

·         Lack of directions and education about the availability of resources and information,

·         Nature of peasant type of production,

·         Lack of information and knowledge about high yielding clones and improved management practices and production systems,

·         Lack of soil fertility improvements

·         Lack of market orientation

·         Reliance on traditional technology, family labour and management.

The smallholders need to pay more attention to improve soil fertility, farming system and management and soil fertility for specific crops. They are required to maintain quality of product that affects the farm income. They need to apply manure and grow cover crops to improve soil fertility. In order to increase the yield, the smallholders need to use high-yielding clones. As smallholders normally use any clone that is readily available to them at the time of planting, it needs to make available high yielding clones that are appropriate for specific areas, and improve their knowledge of clone selection.