Davao De Oro Rubber Has Elasticity And Should Be Able To Bounce Back!

 

The caption above says, “DA-PRDP turned over the Village Level Rubber Processing and Marketing Enterprise to SARPHIL CARP Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative (SACARBECOM) in Monkayo, Davao De Oro last 11 March 2021.” Rubber being produced in the Philippines, a non-traditional commercial product. We are competing with Indonesia and Malaysia?

From the story by Joy M Montecalvo, the caption needs explanation. Not the enterprise itself, the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) turned over a village-type rubber sheet facility that can process 192,000 liters of latex yearly. Miss Joy says, “The 124 members of SACARBEMCO will now be able to produce 55 to 60 MT of rubber sheet per annum and increase their income to at least 5 percent per year or a total of 30 percent in six years.” Hopefully, I say. (The SACARBEMCO is the SARPHIL CARP Beneficiaries Multi-purpose Cooperative based in Monkayo, Davao De Oro.)

Miss Joy says in the headline, “Davao De Oro Coop Bounces Back With Better Rubber Production.” Bounced back from the uprooted trees and damaged farms brought about by Typhoon Pablo in 2012. The Coop actually received 2 rubber processing facilities, not just 1 facility as the caption implies. The PRDP, says Miss Joy, “officially turned-over the P5.3 million enterprise subproject” in Monkayo, including that delivery truck; however, she does notclarify whether or not that is the total amount for the 2 facilities.

More importantly, the unstressed story of the Coop is that this is an experience in learning entrepreneurship.

Before this, the Coop was tapping rubber and selling rubber cup lumps. It wanted to produce rubber sheets, but it did not have funds to set up a processing facility. In 2016, It was chosen as the beneficiary of the “Village Level Rubber Processing and Marketing Enterprise” subproject; this year arrived two village-level rubber processing facilities with supporting equipment. Says Miss Joy, “They can now expect better income since (the) rubber sheets have a better price than the cup (lumps).” The Coop has 40 ha of rubber.

Back to the typhoon, which also damaged the Coop’s palm oil trees. It then obtained a loan from the LandBank and started the rehabilitation of the rubber and palm plantations. The story does not mention what happened to the palm oil venture.

With the arrival of facility support from the PRDP, the Coop’s manager Elly Morente says:

This PRDP subproject is really a big help to us. Now that we have a processing plant, the price for our rubber will increase as well as the income of our farmers… It feels really good that the long wait is over and our sacrifices have finally paid off. We promise to take care of these facilities so that all our members will benefit from (them).

Even so, those rubber and oil palm plantations are not native to the Philippines; are we much better than Indonesians and Malaysians in producing rubber and palm oil? Does the Philippines have economic advantages in growing these non-native trees? Asking for a friend!@517