RRI, the driving force of the rubber industry

by K.K.D. Premalal - Matugama Daily News Special Cor

Many products made of rubber are available for safety, comfort, protection and pleasure. Teats, balloons, balls, bathing caps, condoms, tyres, toys, erasers, inner tubes, cast products, slippers and shoes are some of the products manufactured using rubber. The rubber industry is the second largest industry in the world after iron and steel.

In England, Joseph Priestley, best known for his discovery of oxygen, noted that pencil marks could be "rubbed out" by the substance. From this early use, rubber derived its name.

Vision

The rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) has a smooth bark, compound leaves and small inconspicuous flowers. The seeds are akin to castor beans.

On ripening , the fruit explodes and propels the seeds away from the trees. The motherland of the rubber tree is the Amazon jungle in South America. With the discovery of vulcanisation and other technological advances, the demand for rubber has increased.

In the 1870s Brazil was the only producer of rubber to the world market. Sir Henry Alexander Wickham is the man who introduced rubber to Sri Lanka and other Asian countries.

The first rubber tree was planted in 1876 at Henarathgoda Botanic Gardens.

The Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka (RRI) in Agalawatte is the driving force of the oldest of its kind in the world. Research carried out for more than a century has provided us a wealth of knowledge and information on new technologies to improve the productivity of rubber lands and development of numerous types of rubber products. Today a large number of scientists and supporting staff work tirelessly at the institute developing new clones, improving agro management practices and innovating technologies for raw rubber processing and products. Some of the clones developed by the RRI has won international recognition for their productivity and resistance to various kinds of diseases.

The vision of the RRI is to emerge as the centre of excellence in providing high quality scientific technologies to the rubber plantation industry. According to the Rubber Research Ordinance, the Rubber Research Board under the Ministry of Plantations is the governing body of the RRI of Sri Lanka.

Rubber-Rice Pact

A devoted and dedicated staff functioning under 17 departments and units have a mission to revitalise the rubber sector by developing economically and environmentally sustainable innovations and transferring the latest technologies to the stakeholders through training and advisory services.

The RRI in Agalawatte, is about 15 kilometres away from Matugama on the Agalawatte Road. It is surrounded by dense rubber plantations on moderately hilly terrain.

The site provides a conducive environment for scientists to carry out their research work.

The zig zag route leading to the destination is a pleasant sight indeed. The RRI is a "must see" for those interested in learning about this wonderful tree and the huge industry based on its products.

The origin of research of rubber goes back to 1909, when a group of planters in the Kalutara district met and agreed to engage a chemist to study the coagulation of rubber.

This marks the beginning of scientific research on national rubber in the world.

Various research has been made ever since towards the development of the rubber industry. The RRI has emerged as one of the leading research organisations with international reputation.

In the early 1950s Sri Lanka faced a rice crisis and there was a considerable escalation of its price in the world market. It was in this grim setting, the historic Rubber-Rice Pact between Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and the People's Republic of China was signed in 1952. R.G. Senanayake, the then Minister of Trade and Commerce signed the pact with his Chinese counterpart.

Senanayake found that China was ready to give rice to Sri Lanka in exchange for rubber. The Ceylon - China trade agreement is undoubtedly the most useful one signed by both countries. On the other hand, this was the first trade agreement signed by China with a non-communist country. This year marks the 61st anniversary of the historic Rubber-Rice Pact between Sri Lanka and China. The RRI's Plant Science Department Head Dr. Priyani Seneviratne said, "We have introduced a new system for planting rubber in home gardens using rubber clones with high productivity. This will help earn an extra income for families who possess small home gardens. The distance between two trees should be 20 feet and it will certainly help cultivators to produce high quality rubber latex. Therefore, if a family owns 10-15 of such trees, a good income is guaranteed over a long period of around 25 years. Having a few such trees in the home garden would be a kind of an insurance scheme for the family as the crop can be obtained when the need arises.

In other words, rubber is one of the privileged trees which can store the crop within , for the farmer to utilise when he is in need of it. The RRI is prepared to give clones to cultivators and provide them with instructions.

She said, "A program has been launched to cultivate rubber in the Northern Province with the assistance of the Ministry of Plantation Industries. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe is keen on expanding the rubber industry in different parts of the island. Under the project Palali, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Ampara have been selected to cultivate rubber. This year's target is to distribute 12,000 clones to cultivators free. Rubber trees have a cooling effect on the environment. When cultivating rubber, it will be a boon in the Dry Zone where the climate is dry and rain is not regular.

Extra income

Rubber cultivators can generate extra income during the immature period of rubber plantation by integration of other crops. Crops suitable for inter-cropping during the immature phase of rubber are banana, pineapple, passion fruit, sugarcane, cardamom, vanilla and cocoa. Growing anthurium under mature rubber trees provides an additional income to the rubber planters.

The shade provided by the trees reduce the cost of artificial shading. The rubber tea inter-crop is well suited to the wetter regions where sole cropping of both rubber and tea is practised. Under normal circumstances, rubber cannot be tapped very often during the rainy season and farmers can still obtain an income from tea harvests. Also in large estates, the inter-crop secures job opportunities for estate workers.

The RRI has introduced a new rain-guard system which enables to tap rubber even on rainy days. The rain guarding technology introduced to the industry is a grower-friendly and it is highly economical.

The RRI has also introduced a technically improved tapping knife which can tap latex without damaging the tree. It also helps to extract maximum quantity of latex.

The new tapping knife is available at the RRI in Agalawatte and board office and Rubber chemistry laboratories in Ratmalana.

There are several challenges confronted by the natural rubber industry in the world. Synthetic rubber has become a big challenge and it has captured the major part of the world market.

However, there is a resurgence in rubber plantation because more and more people are planting rubber because there is a ready market in the world.