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Farmers bewail low rubber prices, plant disease
A disease caused by the Pestalotiopsis sp fungus has been more widespread this year, affecting 103,000 hectares of rubber plants in Indonesia as opposed to 103,254 ha last year.
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Approximately 2.5 million Indonesian rubber farmers have been affected by the recent epidemic, 85 percent of whom are smallholders. (ANN/Eleven Media Group)
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plant disease has spread to a majority of Palembang’s rubber plantations in South Sumatra, amid a plunge in the commodity’s prices and the government’s joint efforts with major rubber producing countries to limit supply.
Riza, a farmer from Banyuasin regency in Palembang, did not understand why the leaves of his rubber trees kept wilting and why his plants’ latex production continued to decline. This is the second time he has faced the problem this year.
“I was certain that the leaves were falling because of the dry season, but then I realized that many leaves also had measles-like spots,” Riza told The Jakarta Post recently. “I didn’t know the spots were a symptom of a disease.”
On top of the epidemic, Riza has been struggling with the high cost of maintaining his family’s 120-hectare rubber plantations, which requires an expensive urea compound fertilizer, while also receiving low buying prices from middlemen who offer between Rp 8,800 (61 US cents) and Rp 9,000 per kilogram of rubber. The range is far below the ideal price of $1.40 per kg or more.
“There is no balance between the selling price and production cost; we can’t break even,” he said, adding that he had to start another small business completely unrelated to rubber farming to make ends meet.
Tri Rapani Febbiyanti, a researcher from Sembawa Research Institute in South Sumatra that studies rubber plants, said a disease caused by the Pestalotiopsis sp fungus had been more widespread this year, affecting 103,000 ha of rubber plants in Indonesia as opposed to 103,254 ha last year.
The fungus causes abnormal defoliation and severely lowers latex production.
