Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Creation of national rubber authority sought
KORONADAL CITY -- A body that shall oversee the rubber industry in the country is needed to further boost production in the face of domestic supply shortage, an official said Friday.
North Cotabato Representative Bernardo F. Piñol urged members of the lower house to support a bill he filed creating the Philippine Rubber Authority (Philra), which also seeks to improve the country's rubber performance in foreign markets.
"This body will uplift the lives of small rubber planters by promoting, managing and supporting the rubber industry in the country," he said.
The proposed body shall help secure market access for the product, thus helping the Philippine economy with the expected creation of more jobs, he said, asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to also support the bill.
This year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has reportedly allotted a budget of P70 million for the rubber industry, but it is increasing the fund to P220 million for next year to improve the performance of the Philippines in the global rubber market over the next 15 years.
Senator Loren B. Legarda last year filed Senate Bill 1651 that also seeks to create a Philippine Rubber Research Institute.
A study conducted by Piñol's office showed that domestic demand for rubber reaches 323,000 metric tons annually but production is only about 112,066. About five percent is imported from neighboring Asian countries to narrow the supply gap.
Piñol attributed the low rubber production in the country to the minimal development of potential rubber areas, limited value-adding activities, lack of defined quality standards, wobbly linkages between farms and the markets, and limited access for loans for rubber propagation.
North Cotabato province has been pushing for rubber as one of the high-value crops that farmers should propagate in the area.
According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), North Cotabato has at least 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.
Rubber production output for Central Mindanao, where North Cotabato belongs, stood at 65,091 metric tons for the six months to June 2008, the regional office of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said in its latest report.
In 2006, the National Government launched the 15-year National Rubber Development Program in North Cotabato.
To boost rubber production in North Cotabato, the Provincial Government in the middle of this year distributed 50,000 rubber seedlings in the towns of Matalam, Aleosan and Magpet.
Governor Jesus N. Sacdalan said that some 100 farmers have benefited from the Provincial Government's plant-now-pay-later program as part of its continuing rubber development project.
"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.
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 five years, Sacdalan said.
Citing huge global demand for natural rubber, Vice Governor Emmanuel F. Piñol, who was staunchly promoting rubber since he was governor for three terms, said that almost all areas in the country could be planted with rubber except the typhoon-prone areas.
The vice governor 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)
