Another wage hike granted:

Is LIH the answer to efficient rubber tapping?

by Dr. Lakshman RODRIGO

Wage hikes are inevitable. As we all know, wages in the plantation sector have very recently increased by about 27%; from Rs. 405 to Rs. 515 per day. With EPF and ETF contributions, the total comes to Rs. 572 per day. This has an effect on other terminal benefits such as gratuity. Continuous increase in cost of living associated with the inflation drives people to demand for high wages.

Further, due to the improvement in science and technology and striking advertisements, people are constantly attracted to new luxuries; another reason to demand high wages. In the past, plantation workers were considered to be a underprivileged category.

This is not so anymore and it should not have been so; being involved in key economic activities, their contribution to the nation building is second to none.

They are covered and protected by strong trade unions supported by parliamentarians. This has strengthened their bargaining power. Recognising the needs and importance of this sector, the government has taken steps to provide them educational and health facilities. As a way of improving social dignity, official designations given to plantation workers have recently been changed with a special gazette notification. Nonetheless, some have already moved to other sectors for greener pastures.

Whilst meeting worker needs, plantations should maintain financial viability, under any circumstances. Undoubtedly, current prices for raw rubber can cope with recent wage increase in rubber plantations.

Competitiveness

Although there is no speculation on market collapse, we need to be proactive to sustain rubber plantations for the future. Competitiveness would be the best approach for sustainability. Particularly in human resource management, worker - use efficiency and worker satisfaction/motivation are key issues to be tackled. Cost of production (COP) generally declines with increase in worker use efficiency. Nevertheless, it is not always the case in the competitive market since workers are to be motivated with improved wage structures.

Unlike in the past, managerial staff in most Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) has been reduced to the bare minimum with added facilities, being given to them. In rubber plantations, latex harvesting is quite labour intensive utilising over 60% of the worker force. In COP, its share is well over 1/3. Therefore, it is high time to revise harvesting policies in rubber estates for improved worker use efficiency. Latex is usually harvested from rubber trees by tapping the tree trunk with a half spiral cut (i.e. half of the circumference) once in two days.

This is called S/2 d2 harvesting (S/2 stands for half spiral cut and d2 for once in two days). Each harvester is given about 300 trees per day hence 600 trees in a two day cycle. This means an area having 600 trees requires a harvester every day. Rubber is planted at a density of 515 per hectare, however it diminishes to some extent with time. Expecting an average of about 400 trees in tapping per hectare, worker requirement for harvesting of mature rubber is about 0.6 per hectare per day.

This is just second to tea while coconut needs only about 0.2 per hectare per day.

Less labour

All attempts made so far to mechanise rubber harvesting has been futile and there is no sign of it being a reality even in the near future. Waiting for latex harvesting machines would not be a wise decision.

Is it necessary to tap the rubber tree so often? Is there a way to get latex with less labour? Alternative methods in latex harvesting: Low Intensity Harvesting (LIH) systems are found to be the most appropriate means to increase worker - use efficiency in latex harvesting.

What does LIH mean? When compared to traditional S/2 d2, either harvesting frequency or tapping cut length or both are reduced in LIHs. Reduction in the harvesting frequency is made by extending the time gap between two consecutive harvesting over two days and commonly named as Low Frequency Harvesting (LFH).

Instead of half spiral, attempts have been made to reduce the cut length to quarter spiral or even less. As everyone would expect, reduction in harvesting frequency and cut length has a negative impact on latex yield.

To compensate the yield loss associated with this reduced intensity, yield stimulants are to be applied in a judicious manner. Ethylene is the ultimate stimulant which enhances latex production in the laticiferous system in the rubber tree bark.

Obviously, outside application of ethylene gas is not simple and so, ethephon is generally used as a liquidised paste in different formulations to facilitate a slow release of ethylene inside the bark. It is available in the market under different trade names (e.g. Ethrel, Ethephon Plus).

In the past, latex yield stimulants were used with the intention of increasing the yields.

This has been a wrong decision and today, it remains as a short-term approach perhaps suitable for the rubber fields on the verge of uprooting. In the long run, the potential yield of a rubber tree cannot be exceeded in harvesting. Perhaps, one may have planted a rubber clone having a high genetic potential for high yields. However, the way it has been looked after determines the ultimate yield potential.

Studies have shown that over harvesting with stimulants results in yield decline in subsequent years and leads to physiological disorders such as Tapping Panel Dryness (TPD) where latex synthesis in the bark ceases.

Therefore, ethephon is used in LIH only to obtain the potential yield. Only to compensate yield loss due to reduction in harvesting frequency or cut the length or both.

On the safe side, as a rule, we could consider yield given by time-honoured S/2 d2 as the potential. To overcome time related discrepancies associated with the harvesting frequency, the average yield per tree per year (YPT) or yield per hectare per year (YPH) could be taken for comparison.

How does LIH increase worker - use efficiency and is it the only advantage? Apparently, we could expect a four-fold benefit from LIH; firstly worker use efficiency. With the increased time gap between two harvesting, each harvester can be allocated a greater number of tapping blocks resulting in reduced harvester requirement.

To be continued...