ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Moeldoko, encouraged the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) to play a more optimal role in improving the welfare of rubber farmers in member countries.
“We must jointly commit to improving the welfare of smallholder rubber farmers in ITRC member countries,” he said in a meeting with representatives of the Malaysia Rubber Council (MRC) at the Bina Graha Building, Jakarta, Friday, January 5 2024.
The ITRC consists of representatives from the three largest rubber producing countries in the world, namely Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. ITRC was formed in 2001 with the aim of improving the welfare of rubber farmers and stability of rubber prices.
Moeldoko said that Indonesia, together with Malaysia and Thailand, had signed the Bali Declaration in 2001.
In the declaration, the three countries agreed to ensure fair and profitable income for small rubber farmers.
He added that the current conditions of rubber industry and production in Indonesia are still not optimal because they face several obstacles, starting from low rubber productivity, fluctuating rubber prices, climate change, lack of trained workers for rubber tapping, to low wages for rubber tappers.
“Solutions must be found for these problems so that world rubber prices can increase and the impact will be an increase in farmers’ income,” he said.
Moeldoko, who also serves as General Chair of the Indonesian Farmers’ Harmony Association (HKTI), welcomed the proposal for collaboration with the Malaysia Rubber Council (MRC) regarding the application of ethylene gas technology for rubber tapping.
This technology is considered to be able to increase rubber production by up to 50 percent, or even more. Apart from that, it can also be done when it rains, thereby increasing the overall productivity of rubber plantations.
“MRC’s proposal regarding ethylene gas technology is very good for implementation in rubber plantations in Indonesia, because it will increase rubber production per hectare per year and rubber trees can live longer,” he said.
Moeldoko hopes that first piloting will be carried out on the application of ethylene gas technology on people’s rubber lands from the start of simulation, tapping and collecting tapping results. This is to determine the effectiveness and time efficiency of this technology.
On the same occasion, Chairman of the Malaysia Rubber Council (MRC) Dato Seri Supardi Md Noor said that the application of ethylene gas technology in Malaysia had succeeded in increasing people’s rubber productivity.
If previously production only produced 1.4 tonnes per hectare per year, now after implementing this technology rubber production has reached 5.18 tonnes per hectare per year.
However, said Dato Seri Supardi, implementing ethylene gas technology per rubber tree is quite expensive, namely $11 per tree in a year.
“This is certainly felt to be very burdensome for smallholder farmers, so an innovative financing scheme is needed to accommodate this gap,” he explained.
Furthermore, Dato Seri Supardi said that the MRC had appointed a business entity that would help formulate a financing scheme for the application of ethylene gas technology to smallholder rubber plantations and others, starting from processing, finished products, to marketing throughout the world.
“We are ready to work together so that the tapping technology which is currently being implemented in Malaysia can be immediately applied to community and government-owned rubber plantations in Indonesia,” he said. (AT Network)
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