The Seminar on Natural Rubber Production and Management for the Philippines was successfully conducted last April 28, 2019 to May 11, 2019 in Puer City, Yunnan Province and Danzhou City Hainan Province, People’s Republic of China. It was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) and organized by Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS). The seminar was composed of Nine (9) technical staff from the Philippine Rubber Research Institute, one (1) from the Bureau of Agricultural Research and ten (10) from the Department of Agriculture – Regional Offices to include Research Experimental Station (RES) and Technical Personnel from Regional High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP) of top producing rubber regions in the Philippines.
The opening ceremony was attended by Mr. ZHANG Yishan and Mr. LIU Guodao, the Vice Presidents of CATAS, Mr. SHI Jingsong, the Deputy Mayor of Puer City and Mr. SONG Guomin, Secretary of Party Committee of CATAS. Dr. Girlie Rodriguez-Saludo, PRRI Training Specialist III delivers the message in behalf of the Philippine delegation.
The said seminar aims to benchmark the new technology and common practices between Philippines and China. It was expected that the participants be updated on the trends of rubber production, the cultural management, processing, marketing and research. The seminar discussed current issues, challenges and opportunities of the natural rubber, not only in China and the Philippines but its contribution to ASEAN as a whole. Moreover, the importance of Research and Development was a vital area of consideration that it was deemed necessary to explore, update and develop our own resources and capacity. The seminar gives insights on where we are, what we want to do and how we will do it. It was properly prepared with lectures and presentation on the updates of natural rubber in China, latest technologies, research and development and field exposures on the processing plant and cultural integration with some of China minorities.
Technical presentations were highly elaborated by some Professors of CATAS which were important and relevant to the purpose of the seminar. They give emphasis on China’s actual condition and current development of natural rubber, how it came to China, the role of the commodity to China’s economy and how they developed the natural rubber industry. The professors share their research and development experiences especially on the challenges on climatic requirements for rubber. They were able to developed rubber clones like wind and cold resistant that has high yielding performance. They have also imparted some technology on rubber harvesting with the used of mechanized tapping machine and other technology to enhance the production of latex. Moreover, they also share the development of their processing facilities which has the vital role in value adding and improving the quality of rubber products to get better price for the rubber farmers.
The rubber production practices of China were comparably the same of what we introduced to our rubber farmers in the Philippines such as the Rubber Based Farming System (RBFS), Cultural Management and pest & diseases management. However, China has developed high yielding clones which were suitable in their areas. Tea and other crops like pepper were planted within the rubber plantation.
On May 11, 2019 in the morning, Sino–Philippine Tropical Agricultural Cooperation Symposium was conducted. During the said symposium, Mr. Meynard P. Abello, PRRI Science Research Specialist II delivers the status and challenges of the rubber industry in the Philippines. No less than the Agriculture Counselor of the Embassy of the Philippines, Ms. Ana Abelluela attend the said symposium. She expresses her gratitude to China for sponsoring such seminar. Moreover, she mentioned crafting a Memorandum of Understanding between countries pertaining to the development of the agriculture sector particularly in rubber. As of the moment, she instructed the Philippine Rubber Research Institute to prepare a research proposal which will be presented on July 2019 in Beijing during the 6th Sino-Philippine joint Agricultural Committee Meeting.
The Closing Ceremony was on May 11, 2019 in the afternoon. Graduates were given certificates of completion and token. Also, in behalf of the graduates, Madam Anna gives a simple token prepared by the participants from the Philippines to the representative of MARA and CATAS.
Opening Ceremony
Technical Session
Lecture on Technology on Rubber Cultivation, April 29, 2019
