ISAN TRIES SOMETHING NEW

Kamphan Hongsaen, a Nong Khai native, finished her training for rubber-tapping last week and hopes the new job will bring her greater prosperity.

It is not common for people in the northeastern provinces to take up the profession, as they are more accustomed to cultivating crops such as rice and tapioca.

"Overall, tapping is not so difficult. But it's hard to do it the right way and to get plentiful rubber without damaging the tree's bark," she said.

Mrs Kamphan, 36, together with her neighbours from Bung Kan district's Baan Nam Khem village, took part in a 10-day training programme organised by the local administration and the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund (ORRAF) to show planters how to harvest their rubber trees.

In 2004 the Thaksin Shinawatra government launched its project to add a million rai of rubber plantations in the north and northeast as part of its anti-poverty policy.

Mrs Kamphan and her family used free trees and fertilisers provided by the scheme to convert 17 rai of rice fields into a rubber plantation, hoping that the crop would provide a better income than rice.

"I could produce only 100 (50kg) sacks of glutinous paddy rice a year because of the lack of water here," she said.

More than 40 politicians and private companies are currently on trial facing corruption charges related to the project. But local people have not paid not much interest in the case as they are more concerned about when they can tap the trees.

"My mother is worried about whether we will have enough rice to eat since we have turned to another crop. I don't care that much as rice is sold everywhere," she said.

"In fact, I'm much happier as my son promised to return home from the capital to help run the rubber business."

Rubber was promoted heavily as a new cash crop under former prime minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's 1989 Isan Kiew, or Green Isan, project which aimed to eradicate poverty and drought in the region.

The scheme introduced new plants such rubber and eucalyptus to replace low-income crops.

As a result, the New Aspiration Party which he founded won a number of seats in the region in the general election held a few years later.

The programme introduced rubber plantations to turn large drought areas into green zones. The new crop now amounts to 2.5 million rai today, according to Panya Vorrapittayaporn, director of ORRAF's Nong Khai office.

Rubber, like oil palm, is mostly grown in the South. Thanks to heavier rainfall, the region accounts for 11 million of the total 16 million rai of rubber plantations nationwide.

However, the development of new drought-resistant rubber varieties allows the crop to be introduced into other regions.

A large crop expansion took place under the Thaksin government. It increased rubber plantations in the north and Isan to more than 400,000 rai and 2.14 million in 2007 respectively, from only 110,000 rai, and 1 million rai in 2004. It had substantially boosted the regional economy, said Mr Panya.

"The gross product of Nong Khai last year was about 3.2 billion baht, 2 billion baht alone is from the rubber industry," he said.

Isan could be the country's key rubber production base, leaving oil palm to the south, he said.

"It's hard to expand rubber plantations in the South as land prices are very expensive," said Thawee Paekhiri, a planter from the southern province of Chumphon.

Mr Thawee is among many planters from the South now seeking their fortunes in other regions where the rubber industry is robust. He holds a stake in a plantation in Loei province where he helps the owner tap and take care of the trees.

"It's not easy to do this kind of job. Many Isan people are not used to rubber and they don't have as much skill as we do in tapping latex," said Mr Thawee.