Foreword

In 1996, the Department of Agrarian Reform and Land Bank of the

Philippines entered into an agreement for a joint financing program to extend
a comprehensive, adequate and affordable credit assistance program to non-
bank eligible agrarian reform cooperatives that could not be accommodated
under the regular window of the bank.

The program, called Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries

Development (CAP-PBD), aims to provide financial assistance to agrarian
reform cooperatives, particularly from projects related to agri-business
development and livelihood assistance to improve the economic well-being
of the farmers.

As of December 2004, DAR and LBP had already released about P188
Million for the rubber replanting program covering five large AR plantations in
Region 9. The total area planted for the same period was 1,542.68 hectares.
Of the total new area planted, over 200 hectares were already tapped for
production last year. Alongside this development, loans for the early
plantings have started to mature and cooperatives have already been
required to pay back their maturing loans to the bank.

In 2003, CAP-PBD management, in its effort to strengthen the Program, also

commissioned an evaluation team composed of well-known notable experts
in corporate rubber plantation management to conduct an assessment of the
CAP-PBD Rubber Replanting and make recommendations to improve the
Program.

One of their recommendations was to develop and distribute a Manual for

Post-Replanting to help cooperatives and loan administrator set-up and
institute mechanisms to address the various requirement and standards of
rubber trees once they come into production. The recommendation aims to
ensure that cooperatives will be able to follow the required systems and
standards of rubber harvesting to enable them to pay back their loans and
realize sizable profit for the organization to take care of its other needs.

The evaluation team also noticed that while cooperatives could manage the
replanting program with basic success, effort had to be geared towards
assisting them to correct/improve “substandard job performances, discipline
and work ethics that often resulted to low productivity, defective product
quality and marketing”.

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Introduction

This Manual was developed to provide important information and guides

about tapping practices and standards vital in the formulation of the
cooperative’s production policies and plan, and in the implementation of
appropriate tapping systems and maintenance practices during harvesting.

Operating procedures adopted in this manual were formulated using

corporate plantations (Menzi Agricultural Plantation, Sime Darby Philippines,
and Goodyear, Philippines) practices and standards as a guide. These
companies successfully managed large rubber plantation businesses during
the pre - CARP period and their practices are still very relevant today.
Research findings and recommendations of the Rubber Research Institute of
Malaysia (RRIM), and the Industrial Crop Research Institute at the University
of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, South Cotabato, which were locally
adopted with viable results, were also incorporated in this manual.

Interestingly, four of the five participating cooperatives (except LARBECO

which is new in rubber) openly expressed that as a general rule their
organization still follow the corporate practices and policies as guidepost in
maintaining controls in rubber operation. However, present observations in
the area revealed otherwise. There is a need therefore, to enhance the
existing practices within plantations to improve the efficiency and productivity
of the newly developed farms.

The Manual seeks to set standards for managing production operations for
CAP-PBD Rubber Cooperatives to enable them to attain and surpass yields
and quality specifications for raw rubber in a cost-effective and cost-efficient
manner.

It is therefore imperative that the targets, practices, operating

procedures, policies and methods detailed in the Manual be followed
vigorously and consistently by Production and Plantation Managers.
This also requires that the Cooperative Boards and the Department of
Land Reform and Land Bank of the Philippines offices concerned with
the long-term success and sustainability of CAP-PBD cooperatives
support and enforce policies that will make it possible for Plantation
Management to consistently follow prescriptions contained in the
Manual.

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 Minor modifications to prescribed practices may be made by Plantation
Management. However it is strongly recommended that major modifications
and departures from prescribed practices and policies such as changes in
tapping intensities and frequencies, tasks size, stimulation program, etc. be
cleared with CAP-PBD authorities as these may have significant impact on
meeting annual production and financial targets as well as tree health, as
Cooperatives seek to meet their amortization payments for their respective
Replanting loans.

Scope of the Manual

The Manual is concerned primarily with providing instructions and references

that will enable CAP-PBD Cooperatives to meet and surpass the long-term
yield and cost-efficiency targets (production-side) anticipated in the CAP-
PBD Rubber Replanting Loan. The focus will therefore be on the rubber trees
that will come into production as a result of replanting. However, the content
of the Manual may also be applied to old rubber areas.

The scope of the Manual is confined to Production Management covering the

Harvesting and Field Maintenance practices. It does not cover Processing
and Marketing operations. Most cooperatives in the current CAP-PBD
program do not have processing plants and rely on outside private
processors to mill their raw rubber. The responsibility of Production
Management is to insure that the targeted volumes, and quality
specifications of raw rubber (latex and scrap) reach the processing plants on
schedule, and that production assets are maintained to meet continuing
production targets.

The revenue targets of Plantation Management and CAP-PBD however, are

also a function of price which in turn depends on the volumes, quality and
marketing of processed rubber. It is strongly recommended that CAP-PBD
Administrators provide future recommendations, guides and standards for
processing and marketing to ensure that Plantations receive the best
possible prices from marketing of processed rubber.

How to Use the Manual

The Manual contains all the elements required to organize and implement a
production operation in a rubber plantation from assessment of field stands
to setting targets and policies for harvesting (tapping) and collection and field
and tree maintenance. It can serve as a guide for new production managers

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 but will also be useful as a ready reference for experienced field and
plantation managers.
The Manual should be used to check and adjust existing practices, policies
and plans particularly for CAP-PBD rubber areas to bring them into
alignment with prescribed standards and practices. The standards and
recommendations on key areas of rubber operations, which include detailed
systems and procedures in tapping, organization and deployment, duties and
functions, field maintenance program (weeding, fertilizing, stimulation and
diseases control), quality control and inspections, incentive systems and
intercropping technologies are covered.

It is recommended that, following the steps outlined in the Manual, each

plantation develop or update its long-term production plan covering yield
targets, activities and costs, as well as establish an annual production plan
and budget to serve a bench-mark guide for the Management, BOD,
members and CAP-PBD Administrators. The manual will provide a specific
framework which CAP-PBD cooperatives may use as a basis in formulating
their production and operations plan and policies.

Rubber plantation cooperatives are faced today with the need to prepare
new tappers and plantation workers to take over the work of first-generation
beneficiaries. The Manual contains a section that describes the training
intended for new tappers to enable cooperatives develop and maintain their
own tapping school in anticipation of ageing tappers who will be retiring
soon. Finally, a chapter is included that provides guidelines for permanent
intercropping for cooperatives that have followed or intend to undertake
double-hedgerow planting to intensify use of their agricultural areas.

The attention of CAP-PBD administrators is called to recommended

standards and plantation policies and procedures contained in the manual
particularly those which pertain to tapping systems, task sizes, yield targets,
tapping and collection time, crop and field maintenance and organization and
management. These are areas that are critical to sustaining productivity and
maintenance standards for rubber plantations.

Organization of the Manual

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 The Manual is organized as a reference book with stand-alone sections
covering different aspects of Production Management.
The first part comprising of Chapters 1 to 7 is concerned with setting up
plantation production operations, covering the “how-to’s” of assessing field
stands, setting yield projections, deployment and structure of personnel,
establishment of tapping policies and procedures including incentive and
sanction systems, latex stimulation, and supervising and implementing
tapping and collection. The first chapter serves to provide a general
overview of the production planning and management, highlighting peculiar
aspects that may be relevant to rubber cooperatives.

The second part of the Manual comprising of Chapter 8 contains detailed

references and guides for field maintenance covering fertilization and
weeding, pests and diseases and their control, and plantation infrastructure
and road maintenance.

The last part of the Manual, Chapters 9 to 11 contain, respectively, guidelines

for intercropping and maintaining double hedge-rows, guidelines for setting
up tapping schools, and pro-forma forms used to monitor and record
production operations.

The reader may use the Manual as a text to review the entire cycle of
production management for rubber or refer to particular sections as needed
in the course of managing the rubber plantation.

Acknowledgement

The Manual was prepared by a team from KFI led by Leonardo A. Ablao. The team
acknowledges and thanks a number of individuals and institutions who contributed
their inputs and comments to the development of the Manual. In particular, the team
wishes to thank for their participation, Messrs. Onofre I. Griño (President of Menzi
Agricultural Corporation) and Ramon C. Asagra, Sr. (former General Manager, Sime
Darby Plantations, Basilan) , both long time managers of corporate plantations in
Basilan for their valuable inputs, members of the CAP-PBD administration
composed of the PMIG and TAG and other personnel of the Department of Land
Reform-Region IX and the Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development,
the Land Bank of the Philippines-IX, and representatives and officers of the CAP-
PBD cooperatives, LARBECO, ARBEMMCO, GARBEMCO, SARBEMCO and

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TARBIDC, who patiently and actively participated in validating and discussing the
manual through its various drafts.

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