t

18TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

tSth ANNIVERSARY - JUNE 2OII - VOLUME T4I

Editorial i............ .08

Contentslnterview: Datuk Dr. Salmiah

Ahmad, Director General,Malaysian Rubber Board in aninterview with M Noorani............ f O

Cover Story: >Malaysian Rubber Board .............1 6

Tyrexpo India 2Oll:Chennai. lndia - 5 - 7 Ju1y"........24

LANXESS comPletes acquisitionof DSM Elastomers:Dr. Axel C Heitmann.....................32

Apollo continues it agressiveoverseas push with great salesperformance : ................................. 34

JK Tyres FY ll Profit lallsT2o/oto

Rs.63 crore: .............5O

on the Move Institute:Jean-Dominique Senard, ManagingGeneral Partner........ ............................5 |

Climate Change andMalaysian NaturalRubber Production:Faculty of Agriculture,University Putra

Malaysia..... .........................66

Rubber DeveloPmentin Thaifand: by ReyongKittipol, Thai Hua RubberPublic Co., 1td....... ..........7 8

. D,ary of World Events

o Tyre News

a Company News

o Natural Rubbera lndian Business News

a Auto News

EINDIAN RIJBBER JOURN

V

465054586470

o lnternational Business News 88

NATURAT RUBBER

'oky Dr. lsrnoil Abd lofil Dr. Abdullohi Foroh Ahrned

Fotulty ol Agrkulture, Universily Putra Moloysio

terms of rubberproduction with a

cultivated land area of1,247,000 hectares. It is

well-l<nown f or itssuperior quality and is

widely used as a

brenchmark in theinternational rubbermarket. Rubber is animportant comPonent ofthe Malaysian economy,after oil palm, in terms ofarea, production andvalue. But there has beena decline in productionsince 1997 which wasaccompanied bya declinein both yield and area.

Table I shows that theMalaysian natural rubberproduction has declined ata steady rate compared tothe other rubber growingcountries. Figure I showsthe pattern of changes inarea and yieid of rubberduring the same period oftime. Yield has shown a

sharp decline while arearemains more or less static.

772 853 8l I 881 820Malavsia

Given the above situation, a study wascarried out to examine if climate changehad contributed to the decline inproduction on Malaysian natural rubber(NRJ production. The study team whichincluded Dr. lsmailAbd Latil Dr. AbdullahiFarah Ahmed and the author himself willanalyze the relationship between climatevariables and total production. In the last

Table l:- Production of NaturalRubber from 2OO5 - zOOq

Country OuantityProduced('Ooo tonesl2,005 2,006 2,007 2,008 2,009

Thailand 2,937 3,137 3,056 3,090 3'164

lndonesia 2.27 1 2,637 2,755 2,751 2,440

1,126 1,284 1,200 1,072 857

30 years, climate has changed in Malaysia

i.e. temperature, rainfall and number ofrainy days has experrencecl an upwarotrend with relative humidity iRH) on a

downward trend. The climate dataconfirms that there has been an Increasein temperature of about I (one) degree andan increase of I 50 mm of rainfall. lt is a

fact that the temperature conducive forrubber plant growth is a monthly meanof 25'Cto 28"C, beyond which there willbe a decline in production. In case ofrainf all, rubber trees getting more thanwhat is required will aiso have a negatlveimpact on theyield. A decrease in {relativehumidity) RH will create a drlerenvironment and along with more dryspells will leads to more uptake of waterby the plants from the soil and causingwater stress. Another important factor is

the number of rainy days where more ratny

days means less harvest latex from thetrees. As climate change rmpacts aredistressing so it is tjme to act to adapt orto mjtjgate these changes that rubberplantation industry in Malaysia is goingto experience in times to come. Theappropriate adaptation method thegovernment can implement to overcomethese jmpacts are by developing floodand drought control managementsystems, use appropriate measures forprotection against soil erosion; conservegroundwater suPPlY, waterimpoundments, and efficient waterresource systems. But how the magnitudesof the increase and decrease in climatevariables affect NR production rematns tobe further analyzed by the study.

lndiaVietnam 482 555 606 660 711

China s41 s3B 588 548 643

Sri Lanka 104 109 i 18 129 137

Philippines 79 88 l0l 103 98

Camboclia 20 21 19 19 34

Source: ANRCP, 2009

Cfimate Change and Malaysianllfatutel Rubber Production

flre biggest challenge to mankindI in the 2l't century is climateI chanqe. Climate is changing

beyond what was expected and more andmore unforeseen externalities are beingexperienced. Malaysia, a country in thetropical climatic zone, is relatively free fromnatural disasters but recently it has beenexperiencing frequent floods in the coastalregions along with an increase in sea level,temperature and even rainfall which is

affecting agricultural production.However, the climate scenario of Malaysiais no different from what the world is

experiencing. since climate change ts aglobral phenomenon. Malaysia's temperaturehad increased 0. I B 0C per decade for over40 years since 1951 (MOSTE, 20001;whereas UTM (2007) revealed an averageannual rise in sea level byapproximately 1.25

mm at a southern coastal site of thePeninsular Malaysia since 1986.

Malaysia is among the top few rubbereconomies of the world, third in ranl( in

Porthciyoti Borkotoky

figure I :Areo ('000 heclores) ond yied(kg/ho)from 2005-2009

ri!a_€ -+--.'_+

:a!

600

r0c

rocl :l:: :an; loc: :ao-'

Sourte: D0S,Moloysio (201 0)