Discovery of commercial potential
The para rubber tree initially grew in South America. Charles Marie de La Condamine is credited with introducing samples of rubber to the Académie Royale des Sciences of France in 1736. In 1751, he presented a paper by François Fresneau to the Académie (eventually published in 1755) which described many of the properties of rubber. This has been referred to as the first scientific paper on rubber.
When samples of rubber first arrived in England, it was observed by Joseph Priestley, in 1770, that a piece of the material was extremely good for rubbing off pencil marks on paper, hence the name rubber. Later it slowly made its way around England.
South America remained the main source of the limited amounts of latex rubber that were used during much of the 19th century. In 1876, Henry Wickham gathered thousands of para rubber tree seeds from Brazil, and these were germinated in Kew Gardens, England. The seedlings were then sent to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Indonesia, Singapore and British Malaya. Malaya (now Malaysia) was later to become the biggest producer of rubber. About 100 years ago, the Congo Free State in Africa was also a significant source of natural rubber latex, mostly gathered by forced labour. Liberia and Nigeria also started production of rubber.
In India, commercial cultivation of natural rubber was introduced by the British planters, although the experimental efforts to grow rubber on a commercial scale in India were initiated as early as 1873 at the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta.
The first commercial Hevea plantations in India were established at Thattekadu in Kerala in 1902.
In the 19th and early 20th century, it was often called "India rubber." In 2010, India's natural rubber consumption stood at 0.978 million tons per year, with production at 0.893 million tons; the rest was imported with an import duty of 20%.
Natural rubber, also called India Rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer (an elastic hydrocarbon polymer) that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined into a usable rubber.
The purified form of natural rubber is the chemical polyisoprene, which can also be produced synthetically. Natural rubber is used extensively in many applications and products, as is synthetic rubber. It is normally very stretchy and flexible and extremely waterproof.
Rubber Tree Propagation
Rubber tree planting is now becoming popular in many provinces in Mindanao, particularly in the Central Mindanao region as evidenced by rows of rubber trees lining the roads of the areas. It has been observed that the provinces in the central region concentrated in the planting of rubber trees based on the report of the United States Agency for International Development-Growth with Equity in Mindanao (USAID-GEM) Program. USAID-GEM reported that for the period 2005-2010, overall rubber production has increased by about 25 percent in Mindanao, and went up by 50 percent in the Central Mindanao sub-region. In order to obtain good production of rubber in North Cotabato.
The University of Southern Mindanao recently partnered with the USAID to provide training on rubber tapping and bark management for the farmers in Aleosan town, and in the neighboring municipalities of Libungan and Matalam. The training, which was implemented through the USAID-GEM Program, is part of USAIDs larger efforts to improve the competitiveness of growers across conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, and to enable former combatants of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to diversify into high-value agriculture production like rubber tree plantation.
USAID reported that in New Panay, Aleosan, the trees, some of them over 60 years old, have witnessed the transformation of this once conflict-affected region into an emerging rubber production hub. New Panay village chieftain Lolita Caputolan said “people started planting rubber here as early as the 1950s. Aleosan’s hilly terrain and agro-climatic conditions make it a good location for rubber plantations.”
It was learned that Caputolan’s father had just started the family’s rubber farm in the 1970s when armed hostilities broke out between two local ethnic groups. “We had to flee to evacuation centers in Libungan and Midsayap. More than once, we had to stay away for two to three years from our village but every time we returned home, we found our rubber trees in relatively good condition,” she recounted. “That’s the thing about rubber trees. They are resilient and need minimal care, unlike other crops,” Caputolan said.
As local economy and security conditions in the area improved over the years, residents focused more on developing their farms – and on realizing income from rubber production.
“Domestic demand for rubber continues to grow,” said Caputolan, a member and business adviser of the New Panay Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, whose 40 members include former combatants of the MNLF.
According to government data, aggregate rubber production in the Philippines amounted to more than 395,000 metric tons in 2010, with production concentrated in Central and Western Mindanao, particularly in the provinces of North Cotabato, Basilan, and Zamboanga Sibugay.
Caputolan said the training provided farmers with improved techniques in rubber tapping, including the proper angling and thickness of the cut.
