2015 Natural Rubber Production, Transformation and Impacts
“HOW CAN RUBBER ADAPT TO CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS"
Hevea Research Platform in Partnership
The 6th Scientific Seminar of the Hevea Research Platform in Partnership
7-9 October 2015
Meeting room in 2nd floor, Sirikunakorn Building, KhonKaen University, Thailand
The “Hevea Research Platform in Partnership” (HRPP) is a platform devoted to research and higher education on Rubber Tree plantations and Natural Rubber. It aims at increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of the rubber-based farms and the local value-added in Natural Rubber production.
To strengthen academic networks and regional cooperation the Hevea Research Platform in Partnership (HRPP) was created in 2008 by the four core partners, Kasetsart University (KU), Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Department of Agriculture of Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative (DOA) and CIRAD. For further development in this field of research to accelerate regional and international development, many universities and R&D institutions (5 from Thailand and 6 from France) became our Associated Members such as Mahidol University, Khon Kaen University, Ubon Rachathani University, ORRAF and BIOTEC for Thai side, Montpellier Sup Agro, INRA, IRD, University of Montpellier II, University Blaise Pascal of Clermont-Ferrand, University du Maine of Le Mans for French side.
Rubber farms facing new challenges ahead
Why rubber plantations?
Who knows that a high-tech sector such as the plane industry relies on a natural product, the Natural Rubber, produced by millions of family-owned farms?
Actually without Natural Rubber to manufacture its tires, not a single plane could land.
In Thailand and in South-East Asia, smallholders represent the large majority of the surface area and production of Natural Rubber. For family farms rubber tree plantations provide multiple advantages, such as a regular income with low inputs (fertilizers, pesticides…) making rubber trees one of the most profitable choices for farmers.
However, the rubber planters are somehow making a bet. To ensure the sustainability of plantation systems, conditions should remain favorable during two decades. How can such conditions be ensured when the environment is changing?
A changing environment
There is a consensus that under the global climate change the farmers will face a more variable climate, with changes in rain patterns. Moreover, how can family farms face the volatility of prices of a commodity directly depending on the global market, where the key-players are global majors? On the other hand, how can the requirements of the industry be met with a naturally variable product coming from such a large number of farms?
To analyze the way socio-economic factors interact with biophysical factors in determining rubber yield and quality, as well as profitability and sustainability of rubber farms, a multi-disciplinary approach is developed by a strong Thai-French partnership under the Hevea Research Platform in Partnership (HRPP).
Moreover, as the expansion of rubber plantations contribute to major changes in land-uses in Thailand and in other SEA countries, the platform also assess the environmental footprint of rubber plantations and rubber production.
Beside the specific case of rubber plantations, a more generic output is to determine the most significant indicators to assess the long-term adaptation and sustainability of smallholder’s tree plantation systems.
DOWNLOAD HRPP LEAFLET (PDF) here
Conference "Hevea Research Platform in Partnership: Organization, Scientific Strategy, Research and Higher-Education Outputs" in the 3rd National Rubber Conference organised in BITEC, Bangkok on 24 June, 2011
Abstract (PDF86Ko) and Slides (PDF 2Mo)
DOWNLOAD HRPP for APRC 2013 Slide (PDF) here