Have you ever been to a rubber Plantation before?
For centuries now, millions made use of rubber in their various locations, it could be in form of kitchen utensils, it could in form of costumes, vehicles, medical equipment, or even for packaging…etc...
But I have some very interesting question to ask you right now, have you ever been to a rubber Plantation before? Do you know how rubber is processed to become a useful product?
Well, I tried to satisfied my curiosity on the questions above by taking a walk to a rubber plantation farm close to my environment last week and what I find out was rather more interesting than I thought.
 Rubber Plantation... |
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I paid a visit to Domita farm which is almost 50 minutes drive from where I live and I had to climb one outstanding hill just to get there and trust me, it was worth the strength.
Dormita farm was established 23years ago in Uyo Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria. Basically, Agricultural activities are carried out there in large quantity, it is just my first time of visiting that environment....
Interestingly, this happens to be the biggest farm in the entire state/region of Akwa Ibom State and I wouldn’t be wrong if I say it is among the top 10 farms in the entire country.
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Presently Nigeria among the world’s largest producers of natural rubber, and that's obvious, because almost all the 36 states of Nigeria has a natural rubber plantation farm. It will also interest you to know that Nigeria has over 1.8 million hectares of land set aside for the production of rubber, and guess what ? Annually, It exports almost 30% of its crop to different countries/ continents.
Apart from the rubber plantation which I am going to focus on in this article, there are many other plantations that are done on the Dormita farm, but that’s a story for another day.
So, for the benefit of some of us who don’t know what a rubber is and how it is processed, here is a quick answer below:
A brief look at how a Rubber is Processed
Rubber is from the family of Euphorbiaceae and the kingdom of Plantae extracted from a popular tree Known as Hevea Brasiliensis.
And this process is done by a means of systematic treatment known as bleeding. So basically, a section in the bark is cut till it gets to the vegetal tissue (whitish section) and once that is done, the latex began to flow through the cut section of the tree and latex is collected through a container, this is called tapping.
 I needed to have a closer look, please don't mind my poor Camera.. |
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Normally on this farm, the sap is mostly allowed a longer time before it can be collected from the cups, most times it takes a month before a process known as coagulation is carried out in other to avoid solid solidifying.
How is important to the Country?
Like I said earlier on, rubbers are useful to humanity in general. Most of our gadgets casing are made from rubbers as we all know.
 My Keyboard is a product of rubber.. |
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I hope to visit this farm again to do a documentary on another section of this farm. Maybe I could focus on cocoa plantation, coconut, etc. All of them are on this farm.
And by the way, this also create Job opportunities to farmers in my Zone..., maybe I could work here for a month and see how much I could make, what do you think?😃
 Maybe we should have steem rubber Plantation somewhere in the world..... |
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Do you have such in your country? Do people in your country cherish planting rubber trees? Are land easy to purchase for such? Please feel from to share with me. You could write a post about it and tag me, I will read it or you could write on the comment section.
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| Photo Captured with | Samsung Galaxy A12 |
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| Category | Homesteading |
| Photographer | @ubongudofot |
| Beneficiary | 50% to @smilenigeria |
I know very few details aboutrubber cultivation,after reading your post i learn more details about it.
You write very informative article for us. Thank you my friend.
Interesting to know you have learned something from it. There are actually a lot in agriculture, and rubber plantation is not exceptional.
Are there many rubber plantations in India?
Sri Lanka also has considerable amount of rubber plantation. It's the third main crop other than tea and coconut. It's amazing to know that Nigeria is the largest producer in the world.
We also have around 200 trees. My father has planted them around 9 years ago and now we are taking the milk. It's a good income actually. Can I know the plant that they have grown in between the trees. Because there are a lot of weeds in our land, it's very irritating
Oh, that's good to know...
well, Nigeria is just one of the top countries producing that.., and it's good to know about your country too. Your Father planting it 9 years ago was a great idea....., do you export to other countries?
Actually, the plant in between is just the rubber tree growing again from the matured seeds that fall off, so they Germinate again.
And what the farmers there do is that, once it germinates and grows to a certain stage, they will uproot it and plant it serially and at a preferred location within that environment.
I picked few seeds
I thought there were synthetic methods nowadays... Very cool to see this old cultural technique!
Yeah, it's actually interesting seeing how the old technique is maintained....and I wouldn't know if there are new inventions to handle this...
Shared on twitter
https://twitter.com/gaujglobal/status/1577242168342630400?t=9Vjy9GvPvaR6tSCX3WC_LQ&s=19
amazing progress in cultivating rubber trees in nigeria and now i just found out that nigeria is one of the biggest rubber producers in the world,, this is very extraordinary
Thank you.., and yeah it is. But it's a kind of capital intensive in terms of buying a big land for it. I look at it as an investment..., a long term investment with some great profit in the future.
Are there many rubber plantation in Indonesia?
in Indonesia there are also people who plant rubber trees but not as much as in Indonesia,,, Indonesian people here cultivate many oil palm plantations, thus making Indonesia the largest palm oil producing country in the world.
Oh really..?
Well, over here in Nigeria we also have palm plantation , it is one of the most expensive farming business..., let's say your family have that.., then you will be so rich.
Palm oil is widely used in every household here almost every single day.
Infact, 25 litres of palm oil right now worth about thirty one thousand Naira(N31,000)..thats equivalent to 200 STEEM.
Thats a salary for minimum wage in Nigeria...
Though the value is nothing now due to poor economy, but to use such amount for palm oil is something..., thats huge..
It is one of the greatest comodities. Unfortunately, despite the fact that qe have good land in cultivating this.., Nigeria still get some from Malaysia..., though on rare occasions.
yes that's right,,
here the price of palm oil is cheap because in Indonesia it produces a lot of the oil,,, in Nigeria it is quite expensive because maybe not many farmers focus on palm oil but focus on other sectors.,,,the price of crude palm oil here reaches Rp. 10,500 rupiah or 3.5 steem
I will say..,thats quit cheap over there..., and yeah..., not many people engage in it here.
Yes, friend
I thought there were synthetic methods nowadays... Very cool to see this old cultural technique!