AT THE recent International Rubber Technology and Economic Congress (IRTEC), held October 10-11 in Malaysia, the Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB), led by MRB Director-General Datuk Dr Salmiah Ahmad together with the rubber board team, launched a new rubber harvesting technology, along with five other technologies developed to improve the rubber output in the country.
Called ARTS (Automatic Rubber Tapping System), the new technology is said to benefit rubber tappers in significant ways such as the convenience of not having to tap early in the morning; not having to hire additional workers; and having quality time to spend with their families.
The five other technologies presented were:
1) I-Klon, a clone-inspector application used with a smartphone
2) Rubber Information Traceability System (RITeS), a monitoring tool to ensure the quality of the planting materials obtained by tracing their source
3) Automatic Rubber Nursery Machine, an automated polybag filling device
4) Automatic Planting Machine for Rubber Seedlings, which automates the labour intensive process of preparing the planting platform and dropping the seedlings into the them
5) Latex Collection Vehicle, consisting of a latex storage tank, an air compressor, a diaphragm pump, Teflon tubing and a carriage vehicle, to aid in increasing latex collection.
What spurred these innovations are several issues confronting the industry over time, such as the declining plantation areas and production, as well as increasing latex imports. Compounding these issues is the fact that yields from rubber smallholders (that make up most of the rubber plantations) is low.
Dr Salmiah attributed the low yield primarily to shortage of workers and untapped matured trees; and secondarily to the use of old clones rather than the new ones and inadaptability to new technologies that are available or being introduced.
Because the younger labour force does not seem interested in rubber tapping, older tappers do the work, exposing them to further health risks such as musculoskeletal problems.
In 1985, she said, a mechanised hand-held tapping tool called Motoray Mark II was invented but since the use of it required the presence of a tapper, it was not well-adopted.
As an improved spin-off, the solar-powered ARTS is more user-friendly. First, it is hands-free as it has to be attached to the tree; and automatically taps without the need of a tapper. The tapping time is also programmable and has a short tapping length of 1 inch. The tool has a special cutting blade that can cut at precise depth and thickness. A piping system is also attached at each tree to collect the latex.
The development of the ARTS is congruent to Malaysia’s National Key Economic Area (NKEA)’s 4-point EPP, which is to increase the average national rubber productivity to 2,000 kg/ha/year by 2020.
Currently about 2,000 units of ARTS are being used in a pre-commercial trial until the end of 2012.(RJA)
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