Financial Times

Govt. urged to stop taking over productive rubber lands
The government should stop ad hoc acquisition of productive rubber lands, enact laws to prevent their fragmentation and give more incentives to encourage planting to check the decline of the industry, a senior official has suggested.

Unless concrete measures are taken with immediate effect the Sri Lankan rubber industry will face a severe set back, said Shiran Guneratne, Chairman of the Plantation Committee of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka and Chief Executive Officer of Agalawatte Plantations Limited.

This would affect the island's rubber based industries and also the livelihood of about half-a-million people who are directly depending on the rubber industry. The government should also provide additional incentives for new planting, continuation of replanting and new planting subsidies, train tappers and give them better social recognition, and introduce low frequency tapping systems and mechanical tapping and other technologies to revive the industry.

Making a presentation at the 41st Assembly of the International Rubber Study Group recently, Guneratne said that both the planted extent and production have severely declined during the last 35 years.

Areas under rubber have reduced by 57 percent over the past 35 years due to uprooting of rubber as a result of poor prices, sale of lands for property development, acquisition of rubber lands for village expansion, urbanization and highways, diversification into other crops mainly tea, and abandoning of rubber lands due to shortage of tappers.

Rubber production has declined by 41 percent over the last 34 years to 95,000 MT in 2004 from 160,000 MT in 1970. The main contributory factors for the decline are reduction in the acreage, abandoning of lands due to non-remunerative prices, poor stand per hectare, shortage of tappers due to youth moving away from tapping and employment of unskilled tappers.

In 1950 the price of a kilo of rubber was less than one US dollar and 50 years later in the year 2000 the price of a kilo was still below one dollar. However, in the year 2003 the price went up slightly over one dollar. "If the grower gets a remunerative price the hectarage under cultivation will expand," Guneratne said.

"It is forecast that the rubber prices will increase to US$ 2.00 in the year 2010 and with remunerative prices we can expect the smallholders to replant around 2.5 percent of their areas and plantation companies around three percent for the next five years."

Around 1,360 Ha are expected to be planted with new rubber this year. If this programme goes smoothly the extent under rubber cultivation in the country will be around 134,000 Ha in next 10 years and thus the total production will increase up to 116 million kg in 2010, Guneratne said.

If the Moneragala Project, which envisages the planting of 40,000 Ha. of rubber in the next 10 years is implemented, the rubber extent will be around 174,000 Ha. in 2015 and production approximately 147 million kg.

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