BALING— With rubber prices in a deep slump, rubber tapper Mohamad Nor Said from Kampung Kaki Bukit here in Kedah sometimes has to resort to asking neighbours for food to feed his family of three.
“It is quite embarrassing, but times are tough. Some of the adults in the village will ration their food by only eating once a day to save food for their children to eat,” the 55-year-old told Malay Mail Online recently.
His immediate neighbour Mohd Khotibsharbini Md Saman, 42, is also a rubber tapper but he makes brooms from the riong trees which he then sells to supplement his income. He said he would not turn Mohamad Nor down, even though he himself is struggling to keep food on the table.
“We are tough people here. We can survive even just on rice, salt and coffee. But how long do we have to keep waking up every morning with nothing on our minds other than how to survive for the day?” he said.
Two years ago, the villagers planted banana trees and vegetables on a plot of unused land to reduce their reliance on rubber tapping when prices began to fall, but instead of inviting wealth, it “invited” elephants in the middle of the night.
The elephants ate their crops instead. “Everything we’ve tried here seems to fail,” Mohd Khotibsharbini said.
“It is easy for people to ask us to migrate to another town or another state, but if we are struggling with something as basic as food, how do you expect us to pack all our things and leave for an unfamiliar place to survive?” he added.
With no skills other than tapping rubber and handy work, Mohamad Nor Said, 55, from Kampung Kaki Bukit said he sometimes has to resort to asking for food from his neighbours to feed himself and his family. ― Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
The price of unprocessed rubber that these tappers sell, the farmgate price, has been on the decline for several years, dipping to as low as RM1.60 per kilo of rubber cup lump in the peninsula and RM1.30 in east Malaysia last month. This month has seen the daily fluctuating prices hover around RM2.
On top of that, the majority of rubber tappers do not own their plantations, so they have to split their earnings with the owner.
For a bigger rubber district like Baling that has more rubber trees to tap, an approximate average collection of 100 kilos a week during the current low rubber season would only earn them RM100 for the week.
Though farmgate prices were not much higher two years ago, at RM3 per kilo, tappers say it was still a comfortable income as the cost of living was lower at the time.
The same amount of rubber milk around this time in 2014 would have seen them earn RM150 a week, and for further comparison, ikan kembung (Indian mackerel), they said, only cost them about RM10 per kilo compared to the RM14 to RM16 that they pay now.
“A long time ago, when we could make more than RM2 per kilo for ourselves, we would use half, and the other half would be saved or rolled forward to a low rubber milk season when there is less rubber to sell. But we cannot do that now,” said Muslim Ibrahim, 50, from the Bongor township here.
Muslim himself admits to being more fortunate, as he owns a personal plot of land where he plants rubber trees that he taps himself. He also had enough capital to start a roadside roti canai stall with his wife last year to supplement their income.
The price of unprocessed rubber has been on the decline for several years, dipping to as low as RM1.60 per kilo of rubber cup lump in the peninsula and RM1.30 in east Malaysia last month. ― Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
However, opportunities are harder to come by for the rubber tappers in Sik, located just an hour’s drive away.
Unlike Baling, which has a bigger township with more government offices and factory workers shuttling out of town to work, the district of Sik is almost entirely dependent on rubber.
The town centre of Sik is a small commercial area along one main road that exits to several villages at both ends. While there is some activity around the shoplots with a handful of banks, workshops and government offices, the real bustle is at the licensed rubber buyers’ huts where tappers congregate after a long morning of tapping.
There had been a mushrooming of roadside stalls opened by the families of rubber tappers seeking supplemental incomes, but with the majority of people there being rubber tappers, there were no additional consumers to support alternative businesses.
Families fortunate enough to have some land plant their own food like ulam and kangkung to reduce costs.
“Whatever we have at hand, that will be on the menu for the day,” Kampung Telaga Batu, Sik, resident Basori Mt Akib, 39, told Malay Mail Online.
The father of seven children does not have much land around his own home, and resorts to growing kangkung at his mother’s house nearby.
Basori Mt Akib, 39 collects buah pinang and makes brooms from riong trees to supplement his income when rubber milk is low. ― Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
For supplementary income, he, like most villagers there, collect and sell wild betel nut (buah pinang), which has also gone up in price this year.
“It is more work to collect and prepare the betel nuts, but I can sell them for about RM5 per kilo. We do it every year during the low rubber milk season and this is starting to seem more viable since it’s worth more than rubber now. But the fruit is only in season for a couple of months,” he said.
In a more immediate effort to help rubber tappers, the Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) introduced the Rubber Production Incentive (IPG) last year when the farmgate level prices dropped below an activation level of RM2.20. It sees registered rubber tappers with official cards receiving an incentive amount based on the difference between the current price and the activation price.
It is an initiative that the two-year-old Baling-based Rubber Tappers and Management Association of Kedah (PERGETAH) prides itself for pressuring the authorities into realisation.
PERGETAH deputy chairman Mohamad Shukri Husim, however, said that the implementation has not been without its problems.
“The collection of data and distribution of registration cards are entrusted to the village development and security committees. There are some villages where the distribution has been reportedly ineffective and rubber tappers have not received their cards,” he told Malay Mail Online.
He said that PERGETAH took it upon themselves to help with registration and distribution as well, but with limited resources as a small non-governmental organisation (NGO), they could only set up their centre in Baling township and could not expand to other districts.
As for curbing the further fall in rubber prices, Malaysia, as part of the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) with Thailand and Indonesia, decided to cut exports starting this month until the end of August this year.
The majority of rubber tappers do not own their plantations, so they have to split their earnings with the owner. ― Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
The ITRC aims to remove 615,000 tons of natural rubber from the market for six months in an attempt to ease the global glut of the commodity that remains one of Malaysia’s top exports along with petroleum and palm oil.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have also jointly agreed to use up to 300,000 tons of natural rubber annually for road construction starting this year, to reduce excess in the rubber production.
Kedah is also expected to complete development of Kedah Rubber City, which is meant to centralise the rubber industry in the country and streamline the process of getting the rubber from farm to manufacturing.
Rubber City was last year estimated to have a gross development value (GDV) of RM11.2 billion and expected to create 20,000 job opportunities in the state. While it is a federal government project, its development is led by the Kedah state government with an allocation of RM320 million under Budget 2016.
“Rubber City has a potential to increase farmgate prices by cutting out the many layers of middlemen, since the industry will be more centralised. But the state has seen projects get delayed after changes in mentri besar before, so I am not discounting the chance of it happening to Rubber City,” PERGETAH’s Mohamad Shukri said.
Newly-minted Kedah Mentri Besar Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah recently said he would reassess all state government projects, including the Kulim Airport (KXP), Kedah Integrated Fishery Terminal (KIFT), Oil and Gas Industry Centre in Jerlun and Alor Setar Metropolis Hub projects and Rubber City.
Though aware of the initiatives, Kampung Telaga Batu rubber tapper Halim Ahmad, 54, said he cared little for “promises” until he actually sees tangible results for himself.
“We have no time for promises and politics. This issue is happening right here, right now,” the father of four said.
“We need basic necessities to stop going up in price, and we need rubber prices to increase. That is all we can think about right now. We cannot even begin to imagine what life will be like if things continue they way they are.” - MALAY MAIL
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