The rubber tree has been introduced into Vietnam for more than a century. Being grown in the South-eastern region of Vietnam initially, the rubber trees now exist all over the country. From the lowland to the wild highland, from the South to the North, the rubber tree has become the Vietnamese farmers' "white gold".
Vietnam is endowed with natural advantages and potential such as climate, land, man power, etc., to develop the area of rubber trees, thus it is feasible to expand the model of rubber cultivation to the entire country. In addition to opening up the area of growing rubber trees in the Central Highlands and the South-eastern region, the branch has clearly planned regions able to pilot rubber cultivation in localities, and set up projects of rubber development for each region.
The model of rubber cultivation has expanded to such provinces as Phu Yen, Binh Dinh, Quang Nam, Thua Thien - Hue, and Nghe An, which sometime becomes a fever in many regions. Binh Thuan province has set a target of growing 20,000 hectares of rubber trees by 2010, but the present area of rubber cultivation now exceeds 22,000 hectares. Especially, the movement of growing rubber trees has quickly spread to precincts, where rubber trees were never grown before, like Ham Tan, Ham Thuan Nam, and Ham Thuan Bac. In Quang Nam, the company has four directly controlled farms after ten years of growing rubber trees, generating jobs for over 1,300 people, including 395 ethnic minority people with average income of VND1.7 million a month. In the South-eastern region, the rubber trees account for nearly 70 per cent of national acreage and 90 per cent of national output, mainly distributed in Binh Phuoc, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai. Among three provinces, Binh Phuoc is evaluated to own favourable natural and soil conditions, and land fund for growing rubber trees, especially in intensive farming to increase productivity. Rubber has become the key tree among industrial trees of Binh Phuoc province. The area of growing rubber trees in Binh Phuoc in recent years have risen quickly, particularly small farms (the acreage has more than doubled from 25,219 hectares in 2000 to 51,964 hectares in 2006).
With basalt soil at the height of 500 - 600 metres over the sea level, the Central Highland is the second largest area of growing rubber trees behind the South-eastern region. Dak Lak owns 23,000 hectares of rubber trees on 700,000 hectares of basalt soil with average productivity of 14.7 tonnes per hectare and total output of 27,000 tonnes. It plans to increase the area of rubber to more than 40,000, in which the newly growing area is 20,000 hectares by 2010, to 50,000 hectares by 2020. To move in the direction of economic development in the Central Highland, Dak Lak will with other provinces like Kon Tum, Gia Lai, and Dak Nong contribute 30,000 hectares to 100,000 hectares of newly-grown rubber trees nationwide. Rubber export turnover of Dak Lak is predicted to exceed US$60 million by 2020.
Recognising results that the rubber tree brings to the South-eastern region and Central Highland over years, many North-western provinces have multiplied the model of growing rubber trees to help rural inhabitants eradicate poverty. As of October this year, there are 16,000 hectares of rubber trees in the North-western region (Lai Chau: 1,426 hectares; Son La: 1,873 hectares; Dien Bien: 850 hectares; Nghe An: 4,663 hectares; Thanh Hoa: 7,465 hectares). In particular, Dien Bien uses 20 hectares in piloting seven new rubber varieties. To date, all of the pilot varieties grow well with 2 - 3 layers each tree. In Bat Xat precinct (Lao Cai), the local government and families carrying out the direct pilot cultivation for three years said that this industrial tree is adaptable to the local soil, promising higher efficiency than afforestation. Being one of North-western provinces with high area of rubber, Son La will grow 20,000 hectares of rubber by 2010, including 5,000 hectares in 2008 only.
Seeing the potential of the world rubber market and benefit of growing rubber trees, the Government of Vietnam has plotted many plans to firmly maintain the position of rubber industry. The Government plans to expand the national area of rubber cultivation to 600,000 hectares by 2015 and invest in 200,000 hectares in Laos and Cambodia. The Government over the past years has supported the industry to enlarge the area of growing rubber trees. The rubber branch itself has adopted various strategies, of which scientific and technological elements are highly focused. It also plans to convert the purpose of land usage to grow rubber trees in suitable ecological locations. Furthermore, the branch has funding solutions for rubber tree development, including investment contributions in programmes and projects in the area, borrowings from State budget, and investments from other economic components.
Thanh Thao
Vietnamese
