Zamboanga del Norte shared 4% of the country’s total rubber production in 2010 where most of the rubber plantations are managed by Agrarian Reform Communities and only a few are managed by small individual landowners. The municipality of Tampilisan is the number one producer of rubber in Zamboanga del Norte. It is being planted all over the 20 barangays, with a total of 6,128 rubber farmers. The rubber industry in the region is confronted with critical areas of concerns from production, harvesting, processing and marketing. Farmers identified the lack of investment for bud wood nursery; presence of diseases caused by fungus resulting to root, leaf and trunk diseases; poor harvesting procedure causing bark disease; exploitation of trees; poor coagulation techniques; use of battery solution instead of formic acid for latex coagulation; adulteration of raw rubber products by small rubber producers; no quality standard imposed on buying and selling of rubber products; and no price premium for good quality rubber. Traders on the other hand, admittedly buy even the low-quality cuplumps as they cannot cope with the demand of the world market. The proposed project is within the ISP of PCAARRD on rubber. The project covered cultural management, pest management, and harvesting component within the rubber technology chain. This project has four major component-activities: (1) formation of farm clusters by farmers association; (2) capability building; (3) application of recommended production technologies; and (4) rehabilitation of unproductive trees.
Industry Strategic Science and Technology Plans (ISPs) Platform
