Rubber production and forest functions in smallholder rubber agroforestry in Indonesia

Rubber production in Indonesia differs substantially from the pattern elsewhere in South East Asia, in its basic characteristics, a real extent and production.The dominant view of intensive , less intensively managed jungle rubber among development professionals is that it is backward and has low productivity.On the other hand the forest functions of this forest-like rubber gardens (biodiversity, watershed management and carbon sequeration) are much higher compared to financially more profitable monoculture plantation of rubber and oil palm .Over the last several decades , despite heavy world bank and Asian Development Bank as well as Indonesia government investment for monocalture plantanious,less than 15 percent farmers have adopted the very intensive technology. However, less intensive rubber agroforestry technology based on high yielding clones are likely to be more adoptable to the resource poor farmers, ICRAF in collaboration with national and international institutional research institutions are working on developing such technology targeted to enhance productivity of jungle rubber while maintaining the important forest functions. In this paper, we discuss the aspects of productivity, sustainability and quality in relation to rubber production Indonesia.The environmental service (or forest functions) provided by jungle rubber are a key aspect of on-going research. the recent analysis indicates that the environmental service for jungle rubber farmers will not last unless specific incetives and compensations to the farmers. The main challenge remains connecting the bottom end of the rubber producers (in terms of technology and status) to the top end (most environmentally concious) of the consumers both at the national and international levels.

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