Revitalization of the rubber in indonesia

Rubber Seed

Revitalization of the rubber plantation demands voiced by experts and stakeholders in the field of agribusiness and the national rubber industry has got a government response. In line with the agricultural revitalization program launched since 2004, the Department of Agriculture has been to revitalize the plantation from 2006.

Revitalization program includes three major commodities, namely oil palm, rubber and cocoa. According to the Directorate General of Estate Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Ahmad Mangga Barani, revitalization will require credit financing of Rp 12 trillion (about USD 24 million per hectare) with a target area of ​​539 000 hectares. Plantation area is included in the revitalization program in 2008 increased more than 7-fold compared to the year 2007 are recorded in the area of ​​68 369 ha.

The area targeted for revitalization program 2006 - 2010 is an area of ​​2 million ha. Department of Agriculture has received a proposal covering 2.3 million ha, consisting of 1.9 million ha of oil palm derived from the proposed 18 provinces, covering an area of ​​213 000 ha of rubber proposals from 11 provinces, covering an area of ​​174 000 ha of cocoa and a proposal of the 11 provinces.

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Biological threats to natural rubber production

A critical issue is the threat to natural rubber production from plant diseases, as H.brasiliensis is genetically very homogeneous: the millions of hectares of rubber plantations are all derived from a small sample of seeds collected in Brazil by Dr. Henry Wickam in 1876 (Davis, 1997). Therefore, plant diseases are an important theme, which can be illustrated by the following example. 13 In 1934, South American Leaf Blight (SALB) wiped out the production of rubber in Brazil, and it has not been possible to restart large-scale production due to the endemic leaf blight pathogen Microcyclus ulei. The present production on marginallands in Brazil, where SALB is less of a problem, is only 96,000 T/Y, or about 1% of world production.

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Rubberwood

An important side product of Hevea rubber production is rubberwood (Killmann, 2001), which was originally perceived merely as a useful by-product for drying and smoking rubber and to provide a source of charcoal for local cooking. Rubberwood can be easily steam-bent, or stained to resemble any other timber, depending on consumer demand. Its favourable qualities and light colour make it a good timber for furniture making and other applications. 

The natural colour of rubberwood is one of the principal reasons for its popularity in Japan, where it is increasingly used to replace more traditional timbers. In 1998, Malaysia exported rubberwood furniture with a value of 683.3 million U$, and in general rubberwood is one of the most successful export timbers of Southeast Asia. Hevea is sometimes being grown primarily for timber harvesting, with the latex as a co-product.

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Hevea rubber market and applications

Natural rubber is a highly valuable biomaterial: in contrast with most other biopolymers it is essential for many applications and cannot be replaced by synthetic materials. For example, heavy-duty tyres for trucks, buses, and airplanes,as well as many latex products for the medical profession, cannot be made with synthetic rubber, or only at great cost. About 10% of the latex harvested from Hevea trees is manufactured into latex products. Latex films form an excellent barrier to pathogens, including viruses: condoms and gloves provide excellent protection from infection.

This is largely due to the excellent film-forming nature of natural rubber latex. In this aspect, natural rubber latex is vastly superior to vinyl films and to most other competitive materials. Natural rubber films are also very strong and are closely fitting (tactile performance is not impaired and may even be enhanced). Gloves made from this material both protect the wearer and the object (scientific samples, objects, drugs, foodstuffs, electronic components, etc) or the person being handled. The latex harvested from the tree is concentrated by centrifuging, removing some of the water and much of the proteins, and is preserved with ammonia.

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Natural Rubber Production

The annual worldwide natural rubber production is estimated to be close to 8,800,000 tons (http://www.rubberstudy.com/statistics-quarstat.aspx), almost all of it from one biological source: the Brazilian rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand together produce nearly 80% of the world supply (Table 1).The yield of rubber varies from 500 kg ha-1 y-1 in smallholder plots to more than 1500 kg ha-1 y-1 in large plantations (Balsiger et al., 2000).

In experimental plots with new Hevea lines, yields of up to 3000 kg ha-1 y-1 have been obtained. Natural rubber from H. Brasiliensis mainly consists of cis-1,4-polyisoprene, with many minor additional components that are key to the superior properties of this material compared to all synthetic rubbers.

The rubber molecules are produced from isoprenoid precursors that are thought to be synthesised as part of the general mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway. A rubber transferase (EC 2.5.1.20) located in the cytoplasm of plant laticifer cells progressively adds isopentenyl-diphosphate moieties onto a single allylic diphosphate primer molecule to form the rubber biopolymer.

The rubber molecules accumulate in particles that are surrounded by a species-specific fatty acid monolayer and rubber particle-associated proteins. The length of the rubber molecules is one of the main determinants for the functional properties of the resulting natural rubber. For an overview of the biochemistry and mechanism of rubber biosynthesis, please consult (Cornish, 2001) and (Puskas et al., 2006).

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