Flourishing new Rubber lands aim for sustainable income under STaRR & RDD
Source:Dailynews
Morning sun rays run through the young Rubber trees at dawn. Tender growing buds head up smiling at the sun. Water drops laying on natural green carpet get lights up. Birds fly around the top of the well-grown Rubber trees. Endless foliage cover made of Rubber trees creates green visibility everywhere. Such, natural beauty recalled us of the cool climate at Nuwara Eliya for a while. A young farmer, Subarathne from Kottiyagala village in Moneragala broke the silence and began to speak to us as we have been travelling across the new rubber lands established by the farmers of Moneragala district under the facilitation of Smallholder Tea and Rubber Revitalization Project (STaRR Project) and Rubber Development Department (RDD).
“My village is Kotiyagala. I have been engaging in chena cultivation on land owned by my father. My new rubber cultivation is quite mature with more than 400 new Rubber trees on two acres. My trees have not yet grown enough for tapping. They are still young. In the past, my wife and I used to go far away by bicycle for pitching water at night for watering the rubber plants the next day morning. My wife, Induranga, supported me a lot even though she was pregnant at that time. I was assisted by the STaRR project not only for motivating us to initiate this rubber cultivation by providing inputs, initial seed funds and knowledge on rubber cultivation but also to rear a dairy cow as well. Now I have added a few more cows to the herd.
Every evening we face elephant threats. I constructed a pond and set aside a part of it for the wild elephants who use to come towards the village located in the south corner of the Kabilitta forest. I don’t have a formal elephant fence to protect my crops. Since, no electricity yet, I had to install solar power panels as a remedy. No wild elephant threat for Rubber, not like other crops”.
The STaRR Project
The Smallholder Tea and Rubber Revitalization (STaRR) Project is implemented by the Ministry of Plantation Industries under the financial facilities of the Government of Sri Lanka and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The project aims to improve the quality of life of low-income rural families and to encourage them to fulfill their needs while ensuring food security and the resilience of the household economy. IFAD has allocated 25.7 million US dollars for the project for smallholder tea and rubber development in eight districts of the country. The Total project allocation including the Government’s potion is 65.4 million US dollars.
The project is implemented in eight districts of Sri Lanka. Project interventions on smallholder tea development are in Galle, Matara, Rathnapura, Badulla, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya districts and rubber new cultivation interventions are in Moneragala and Ampara districts.
STaRR is been implemented in Moneragala and Ampara districts since 2016 for introducing rubber new cultivation as a permanent income source for the farmers who used to cultivate more vulnerable Chena cultivation by encroaching on Government lands belonging to Mahaweli, Forest and Divisional Secretaries. The objective of introducing rubber new cultivation in these non-traditional areas is to ensure benefits for more than 20,000 people among 4,500 low-income families by cultivating 3000 Ha. of new rubber lands. Thus, 2,100 Ha. of lands in Moneragala district has been cultivated with Rubber new plants.
The programme is implemented with the technical support of the Rubber Development Department (RDD), and Rubber Research Institute (RRI), and the coordination support of the Thurusaviya Fund to organise beneficiaries as rubber societies. Offices of Divisional and District Secretariat extend their support to the project by making available the Government lands to start new rubber cultivations by giving long-term lease facilities for the lands.
We commenced our visit in the STaRR’s Rubber growing areas in Moneragala district in early November and met new rubber farmers who cultivated rubber in the lands released by the forest department.
Farmers in the project areas are economically and socially vulnerable with no other means of permanent income sources other than Chena cultivation or seasonal cash crops. Hence, promoting rubber new cultivation to improve the rubber supply chain as means to improve the livelihood of people, is the long-felt development initiative to improve the livelihood of Chena-cultivated people in these two districts. In this background, the STaRR Project was formulated with the identification of the need of developing the tea and rubber smallholder sector in Sri Lanka with a focus to develop tea smallholders in six districts and rubber new cultivation in two districts.
STaRR’s farmers who had been engaging in rain-fed cultivation have planted new rubber and practiced intercropping with Rubber lands as an alternative income until new rubber plantations have reached the tapping stage for harvesting economical latex production. They cultivate maize, grams, sesame, ground nuts as seasonal crops and banana, papaya, and various other semi-perennial crops among Rubber trees. The project is greatly supporting them by providing seeds and other planting materials for intercropping and seasonal farming under the facility of the matching grant of the project. Farmers are being facilitated by the project even for marketing their harvest by arranging links with private business entities. The project is strengthening the Thurusaviya Rubber societies at the village level by building their capacities by arranging leadership and business management training, providing equipment, tools and machinery necessary for their land preparation, crop management and harvesting and supplying office equipment and furniture for holding society meetings and providing water bowsers to watering rubber and intercrops during dry-spell thus Chena farmers are now reaching out to become plantation owners.
During the journey across green Rubber lands in Moneragala, we crossed the faraway remote village name Thambana. It is a harsh ground and people are living with many hardships. Going across the Kirindi Oya to reach the village was a challenge for us. The access road to the Thambana is not a proper one, it is a dilapidated road. However, we struggled to reach the village and were finally able to go around households and Rubber lands with a group of villagers in Thambana. We were the first media team who visited the village yet. The village was fully covered with Rubber and maize cultivations creating sound and natural beauty with a feeling of a wet zone setup.
Though the villagers are leading hard lives, they are collectively running a Thurusaviya Society for developing their new Rubber lands under STaRR project facilitation.
K. M. Chandrasena, President of Thambana Isuru Thurusaviya society explained about the Rubber cultivation in his village.
Four hundred and fifty three members are in our Thurusaviya society. We have cultivated 260 acres of new Rubber lands under STaRR and RDD. Many such rubber lands have reached the tapping stage now. We are growing bananas, maize, and grams as intercrops in Rubber and we have harvested seasonal crop products several times up to now and got a good income. STaRR project gave us everything through our society to start and develop these rubber lands. The Project assisted us to develop a short concrete road in the village.
D. M. Dhammika, a member of Thambana Thurusaviya Society spoke:
“We have been living with Chena cultivation ever since. We are engaging in rain-fed farming by looking at the sky. Rain makes us happy and alive. Sometimes, our crops get dried up in drought and keep us in hunger. We cultivate maize, grams, and cassava. But this Rubber cultivation is ready to give us better permanent income in near future. We have no fear now with this Rubber cultivation on project intervention”.
STaRR lives in the hearts of the beneficiaries forever….
The project enters into the village with proper awareness, delivering the technical know-how for starting the new Rubber cultivation, and further giving other inputs like budded rubber plants, fertilizer, organic manure and monetary incentives. STaRR reaches the villagers properly through the Thurusaviya Societies for this project’s activities. The infrastructure development in the village is another aspect that makes beneficiaries connect with the STaRR project by heart because it helps us immensely to transport our products to market and bring inputs for plantation and commodities for day-to-day life. Lots of societies developed access roads within the village under this infrastructure development.
Accordingly, today early adopted beneficiaries have become farmers as well as new rubber planters who are ready to open a new way of permanent income. Another attraction is that the project has coordinated to get the support of the Forestry Department and Divisional Secretariat offices for releasing the lands to start the rubber new planting since the programme has a high value in environmental and land productivity.
We met Sandamali, a member of Thambana Thurusaviya Society and she further explained how STaRR is assisting them.
“Our village is Thambana. There is no proper road to access the village and our lands. Chena cultivation is our one and only income source for us. We are very grateful to the officers of STaRR Project for their dedication and support extended to us by giving us rubber plants, Incentives, fertilizer, and all to start rubber cultivation. We are very thankful for the STaRR’s officers for coming to our village irrespective of difficulties in accessing the village”.
Not only new Rubber planting….
Accordingly, the villagers have given the high credibility for the STARR project as a great Government support project which paves the way not only for new rubber cultivation but also for livelihood improvements. Going beyond the initial steps of crop establishment, the project is assisting in the maintenance of new Rubber cultivations. Accordingly, the project has given them water bowsers, water pumps, grass cutters, and many more tools and equipment to the Thurusaviya Rubber development societies as means of maintenance of Rubber cultivations. Mushroom cultivation, rearing dairy cows, goats, poultry, ornamental fish, and more livelihood initiatives are being assisted by the project for livelihood improvements of the beneficiaries which help them to survive with alternative income until the rubber latex production is harvested from new rubber plantations.
Flourishing Rubber lands and hard-working farmers…….
Next, we reached the Samayanpitiya village in Badalkumbura passing the greenish rubber lands. We listened to the voice of S. K. Suranga Mahinda Kumara, Secretary of the Nethmi Thurusaviya Society.
“We are living here in Badalkumbura, where there are a lot of wild animals. We used to practice Chena cultivation. But we have a threat of wild elephants, boar and other wild animals for our crops. Hence, we had to stay with a pang of hunger for such crop losses. But, no harm to Rubber by the wild animals. Even Rubber grows both in rain and drought. STaRR Project assists us not only in planting new rubber in our lands but also supports us to cultivate seasonal crops and fruits as intercrops among Rubber trees. Then, we can earn income until the Rubber tapping.”
The next morning, our visiting village was a Polkotan Arawa in Siyabalanduwa. Many new Rubber growers have started Rubber tapping in their new cultivations. Some of them earn about Rs. 50,000 monthly from new Rubber plantations. K. D. Roshan, Polkotan Arrawa Thurusaviya Society shared his views.
Rubber is not a familiar cultivation for us. Though there are rubber lands in Moneragala and Badalkumbura areas, we never imagined that rubber would grow so well here in Siyabalanduwa and we could become rubber plantation owners in this area. In the beginning, we were reluctant to start rubber cultivation at the time of awareness creation by the STaRR Project. We felt a kind of uncertainty and risk of growing rubber in our lands. However, we commenced planting new rubber in our lands with the motivation and encouragement given by the STaRR project and are now successful with great support extended by the officers of the Project. Now, we live with the Rubber and fully engage in cropping practices, because this is a good and permanent income source for farmers like us.
STaRR has reached the Rubber new planting target of 3116 Ha. in selected areas of Ampara and Moneragala districts. Nearly 4,500 low-income families are getting a path to progress by engaging in cultivation. Project and RDD have still been helping them even for processing and marketing the harvest.
There are a lot more successful STaRR Rubber stories on the ground. Many enthusiastic new Rubber smallholders have fresh and inspiring experiences to share with other potential farmers. These new rubber plots are not only for these owners but for the whole country. All these new rubber plantations turn arid lands into green with the improved micro climatic condition in the area that shows hints of a prosperous future. These not only bring permanent income to the vulnerable farmers but the foreign exchange will be a boon for the whole country which is a timely and important need of the country at this juncture.
