TECHNOLOGY FOR SMALLHOLDER SURVIVAL

摘要

It is an established fact that rubber smallholders over decades of their existence have been subjected to boom and bust cycles as characterised by vagaries of widely fluctuating rubber prices. They are at the mercy and held to ransom by rubber prices over which they have no influence or control whatsoever. The bust phases due to depressed prices inevitably drive them into cyclical periods of poverty which render mere survival economically very challenging and insurmountable. This is further accentuated in bulk of the rubber smallholdings which are characterized by uneconomic size per holding (less than 3 hectares) with limited upside for increased yield production with use of conventional exploitation systems.