Butuan City — Farmer association here is proposing a P39-million rubber enterprise under the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) to upgrade its production and marketing capacity.

Km. 7 Farmers Producers Cooperative of Barangay Tungao presented recently to the PRDP Regional Project Coordination Office–13 (RPCO-13) and the Mindanao Project Support Office its project proposal which they aim to be funded under PRDP’s livelihood arm, the Investments in Rural Enterprise and Agricultural and Fisheries Productivity (IREAP) component.

“Our cooperative is an established farmers’ organization engaged in rubber seedling production, cup lumps marketing and diversified farming. For years, rubber marketing have been our leading source of income,” said General Manager Nilo Calipayan.

Calipayan said they cover over one thousand hectares of rubber trees and have helped around 250 farmers in Butuan City alone. With the proposal, the co-op aims to expand production and benefit more farmers.

Under PRDP package, they proposed a 1.2 kilometer access road, a bigger warehouse, tie-up linkage to produce semi-processed rubber and additional investments for production.

“The establishment of improved rubber enterprise in Butuan City would lead to its optimum potential for profit among rubber farmers and manufacturers throughout Caraga,” said City Agriculturist Alberto Buca who leads the Butuan City team in facilitating the approval of the proposal.

“The City Government of Butuan is aware of the potentials in developing the local rubber industry as strategy of developing its idle land resources and at the same time providing better livelihood opportunities to the farmers. That’s why we are also willing to put in our share in this investment,” he added.

Based on the PRDP Value Chain Analysis (VCA) and Competitive Strategy on Crumb Rubber, Mindanao accounted for 98.7 percent of the 185,476.20 hectares of land planted to rubber in the Philippines in 2013. Zamboanga peninsula has the widest plantation area at 86,033 hectares while Caraga region ranked fourth with 11,548 hectares.

 Rubber is usually marketed as cup lumps, crumb rubber, and crepe rubber. The VCA noted that Caraga is already marketing cup lump rubber and has the big potential to start up other rubber products such as crumb rubber and rubber sheets.

There has been a significant increase in rubber plantations in Agusan del Norte and Surigao del Sur where areas planted to rubber in the region increased by 18.88% per year in the past five years, the same study noted.

“All interventions the Project provides addresses the weaknesses observed in the local rubber industry. I have high hopes that this proposal gets a nod and eventually elevate  local rubber production,” said DA Caraga Director Edna M. Mabeza.

The proposed enterprise will also provide additional livelihood and generate job opportunities for women tappers and the indigenous people in the community and the surrounding barangays.

The project proposal would create components such as budded rubber seedlings production; provision of production inputs and tools through Plant Now Pay Later scheme; and consolidation of rubber cup lump, quality production and marketing. (Fretcher Magatao, RPCO-13/SB Manual/PSO Mindanao)

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