<
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/agroforestry-offers-thai-rubber-farmers-a-pathway-to-profit-and-sustainability/>
"BANGKOK — Little by little, the canopy of branches and interlocking leaves
closes overhead as our vehicle rollicks deeper into the plantation. Pakamart
Tongkam points from the driver’s seat into the stark thicket of rubber trees
that now surround us: “When I was a child, I slept out there in a small hut
while my mum and dad worked in the plantation through the night.”
Several years later, as an adolescent, Pakamart helped her parents with their
daily rubber tapping. The routine was grueling, she tells
Mongabay during a
visit to Nathawi district in southern Thailand’s Songkhla province, a heartland
of rubber production. Rising at 2 a.m., the family would trek through the humid
plantation to strip the bark of hundreds of individual rubber trees to collect
the milky latex.
Most of all, Pakamart recalls an overriding air of uncertainty: if it rained
during the two-hour window of time it took for the latex to drip into the
collection bowls, the entire day’s yield would be ruined: “No income for that
day,” she says. Relying on a single crop meant such poor harvests were
devastating for their livelihood.
But despite the precarious conditions, rubber farming is a major source of
income for more than a million smallholder farmers in Thailand, who together
produce 90% of the country’s sizeable annual yields of natural rubber.
Rubber has historically been a major driver of deforestation across Southeast
Asia. And with recent studies showing that at least 2 million hectares (5
million acres) of forest have been lost to the crop since 2000, it ranks high
on the global list of commodities most responsible for forest loss, behind
beef, soy and palm oil.
Thailand produced more than 4.7 million metric tons of natural rubber in 2022,
accounting for one-third of global supplies and making it by far the world’s
largest rubber producer. Yet the small-scale farmers who drive this gargantuan
industry are grappling with mounting challenges ranging from crop diseases and
soil erosion to unstable market prices, plus the impacts of climate change. As
a result, many struggle to make ends meet, and often carry significant debt.
“These days, farmers cannot get enough income to care for their families from
latex alone,” Pakamart says. “Weather patterns are shifting. Last year, rubber
farmers could tap only about 100 days out of 365 days in the year.”"
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-healthcare-americas-smoking-in-indonesia-hunger-in-brazil/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
