Monday, July 07, 2008 N. Cotabato expands rubber industry
SOME 50,000 rubber seedlings have been distributed to farmers in three North Cotabato towns as future demand for the product is expected to remain strong, officials said.
North Cotabato Governor Jesus N. Sacdalan said that some 100 farmers recently benefited from the Provincial Government's plant-now-pay-later program as part of its continuing rubber development project.
The beneficiaries came from the towns of Matam, Aleosan and Magpet.
"The price of rubber remains good given the strong global market demand, and this is projected to continue and even increase," Sacdalan said. "We continue to believe that this and other high-value crops will be a better source of income for our farmers especially in the upland areas."
North Cotabato has allocated P10 million for its rubber development program under the 2008 budget, the biggest allocation among priority high value commercial crops including oil palm, hybrid coconut, and mango.
Prevailing price of rubber cuplumps in the province was placed at P50 per kilo. It is projected to give farmers a net income of P14,000 per hectare.
Under the program, each farmer beneficiary is provided with 500 rubber seedlings for a hectare of land. The farmer would only pay for the seedlings once they start tapping their rubber trees in 5 years, Sacdalan said.
Sacdalan added that if the farmers can take proper care of their crops as evidenced by a high survival rate after 6 months, they could apply for an additional 500 seedlings.
The National Government has been pushing rubber cultivation in the country due to its huge potentials.
In 2006, it launched the 15-year National Rubber Development Program in North Cotabato.
According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), North Cotabato has 10.35 million rubber bearing trees in 22,315 hectares of land, which produced 99,810 metric tons of natural rubber about three years ago.
There are at least 81,925 hectares of land in the country planted with rubber, which is mostly in Mindanao. The national government targets the region to increase to one million hectares by 2020.
North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel F. Piñol, an advocate of rubber propagation, said that almost all areas in the country could be planted with rubber except the typhoon-prone areas.
He said that demand for natural rubber in the world market is huge, which projected to rise to 28.1 million tons even up to year 2020.
Citing global data, the vice governor said that world rubber production stands at 6.3 million tons as of 1997.
Piñol said that Asean countries produce 8o percent of the world's rubber, with Indonesia as having the largest rubber area at 3.2 million hectares, Malaysia at 2.1 million hectares and Thailand at 1.8 million hectares.
"The Philippines' share is dismally very minimal," he said.
Piñol said the country needs to catch up with other Asean countries by opening more rubber plantations given the huge global demand for the product.
The world's top consumer of natural rubber is China, followed by the United States and Europe.
Piñol urged farmers to plant rubber because it has an economic life of 30 years, which are five years of immature phase and 25 years of productive phase, although it can live for a hundred years or more.
Rubber is a versatile material used in the manufacture of 50,000 or so articles from spaceships to submarines, Piñol said.
He added that people use 80 percent of rubber products everyday from car tires, escalators, hose, and insulators to adhesive tapes. (BSS)
