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Rubber intercropping: a viable concept for the 21st century?

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Abstract

The last decades brought along a tremendous expansion of rubber plantations as well as respective socio-economic transformations. This paper reviews the historical development of rubber cultivation with special reference to intercropping and illustrates the major development steps. The agronomic challenges of intercropping are analyzed and a management classification scheme is suggested. Though the topic of labor always accompanied rubber management, it is nowadays of even higher relevance due to alternative income options, be it due to competing crops such as oil palm, or be it off-farm income opportunities. This development challenges labor intensive permanent intercropping systems. It can thus be concluded that the permanent integration of additional plants needs either to be highly profitable or at least be labor extensive to be adopted on a considerable scale. Given the large area of rubber plantations the latter seems to be more realistic. In this context timber trees might offer promising options if tree selection is properly adapted to site and plantation conditions. Nevertheless, without external interventions, such as land-use planning and implementation, or incentives, the development will be difficult to control.

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Source data: Chee and Faiz 1991, Sanchez and Ibrahim 1991; modified. Data refer to planting densities between ca. 300–600 trees/ha

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Notes

  1. SURUMER—Sustainable Rubber Cultivation in the Mekong Region: www.surumer.uni-hohenheim.de.

  2. http://www.rubberstudy.com/aboutus.aspx.

  3. http://www.snr-i.org/.

  4. Fernandez, Tej (2012): The future of natural rubber hinges on research. Asian Rubber Journal June 27, Selangor Malaysia.

  5. Lanka Business Today 2014: Agarwood Investment presents higher returns within just 8 years. Global Media Networks Ltd, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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Acknowledgments

This study has been conducted in the framework of the Sino-German “SURUMER Project”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research with FKZ: 01LL0919A. We very much appreciate the hospitality of all our local partners and are especially grateful to the staff of the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve Bureau for their support, particularly its general director Li Zhongqing and Mr. Liu Feng, director of the science and research department.

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  1. Institute of Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics (Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute) (490), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany

    Gerhard Langenberger, Georg Cadisch & Konrad Martin

  2. Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany

    Shi Min & Hermann Waibel

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  1. Gerhard Langenberger
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  2. Georg Cadisch
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  3. Konrad Martin
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  4. Shi Min
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  5. Hermann Waibel
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Correspondence to Gerhard Langenberger.

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Langenberger, G., Cadisch, G., Martin, K. et al. Rubber intercropping: a viable concept for the 21st century?. Agroforest Syst 91, 577–596 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-016-9961-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-016-9961-8

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