Rattan rather than rubber?
Rattan collection from the wild is no longer the lucrative business for smallholder farmers that it once was. Recent limitations have been set to prevent the further depletion of rattan from the primary forests of Sumatra, but the increasing economic value of rattan has prompted farmers in Jambi Province to collect seeds and seedlings from the forest to plant on their land. For one farmer, the integration of rattan in his rubber garden has proved so successful, that tapping rubber is no longer his primary activity but only a source of income between planting and harvesting rattan.
 |
| credit: Paul Burgers |
Rattan (Calamus rotang L.) grows naturally with jungle rubber. It takes three to five years for rubber to be sufficiently established to provide the shade necessary for rattan to grow, but planting rattan at this stage means that the stalks can be harvested at the same time that the rubber trees are replaced. Rubber is generally replaced after 20-25 years on a smallholding and although rattan can be harvested after 10 years, the best stalks for furniture making are taken after 16 years. As well as providing shade, rubber is deep rooting which avoids competition with the rattan. However, rattan is a climber which, after a few years, develops sharp thorns. To avoid damage to the bark of rubber trees, the rattan has to be staked and guided away from the rubber. However, the thorns are a good deterrent against animals eating young seedlings and, if the plants are well established, the thorns are woody enough to be knocked off after four-five years so that farmers can tap the rubber.
As a supplier of a scarce product that is in high demand Babal Kanijan knows he is onto a good thing. On six hectares of land, he has two hectares of intercropped rattan and rubber and the remainder is used as a nursery to raise rattan seedlings. The rubber is planted at densities of 4 x 3 m with rattan planted in the middle of the rubber alleys at the same density.
For over twenty years, Kanijan has collected seeds twice a year from the rubber garden to establish seedlings in the nursery and to complement his genetic seed stock, he buys rattan seeds from the indigenous forest dwellers of Sumatra. His successful collection of seeds has enabled him to contract out some of his nursery seedlings to neighbouring smallholders on the premise that he will receive a share of their future harvest. Such firm links have been established between Kanijan and the traders - he is currently growing his second crop - that many local farmers are also willing to sell their rattan harvest to him to sell on.
Kanijan's success has been noted by the forestry department and, because Kanijan knows which smallholders have planted rattan on their land, he is now in charge of issuing the official documents to certify that the rattan being sold was planted on-farm and not collected from the forest. Some rattan collection is still permitted from the forest - this is the type that resprouts naturally after harvesting. But this rattan is of lower quality, sells for less and is only suitable for local markets. For more select markets and for making furniture the demand is for rattan Manau, which is of higher quality but does not re-grow after harvesting. It is the Manau variety that has been depleted from the wild but which now provides an opportunity for Sumatran farmers to intercrop with rubber and so boost the profitability of their land. The activity is being promoted through the Indigenous Fallow Management Network as part of the ICRAF (International Centre for Research in Agroforestry) Southeast Asian Regional Programme, which takes farmers strategies, such as the rattan/rubber gardens, as a starting point for developing sustainable land use systems in Southeast Asia.
Email: p.burgers@cgiar.org
(Article based on "Innovative Farmers" by Gerhard Manurung & Paul Burgers in Agroforestry Today Jan-June 1999)
