Economics of gaseous stimulation technology

Advances and continuous R&D on gaseous stimulations systems have led the Malaysian Rubber Board to come up with further improvements in gaseous stimulation technology - a more user friendly but less costly gaseous stimulations technology packages - two important requirements to encourage commercial adoption. Its relatively lower cost amidst current encouraging price of natural rubber (a scenario sadly absent when earlier technologies were introduced) gives this technology the advantage for potential commercial adoption. Early experimental results of this gaseous stimulation indicated that this technology has promise for adoption on a commercial scale. Total package cost of this technology (material and labour) is RM2.97. The start-up cost per hectare for this technology is in the region of RM640-710/ha depending on the tapping stand. At SMR 20 fob price of RM4.00/kg, the actual tree productivities achieved (g/t/t) are very much above that required to breakeven the costs associated with its adoption. At the given standardized 80 tapping/ha/year and gtts of 110g for high panel tapping and 75g/t/t for basal tapping, the breakeven SMR 20 fob price is only RM2.47/kg and RM2.84/kg respectively for high and basal tapping panels. This is very much lower than current rubber price. At SMR20 fob price of RM4.00/kg it takes 26 tappings on high panel and 39 tappings on basal panel to obtain the additional revenue to breakaven costs. At the price of 6.00/kg, the number of tappings required to breakeven costs of the gadgetis much lower at 14 and 20 tappings respectivelyfor high and basal panel. Benefit-cost analyses indicated that at SMR20 fob price of RM4.00/kg independent and organized smallholders could earn (depending on their size of holding) net additional incomes of RM325-RM570 by adopting the technology on high panel exploitation. This increases substantially to Rm750 and RM1310 at SMR20 fob price of RM6.00/kg. This improved technology is not without problems. There are still the teething problems of insect attack on its soft plastic gadget that leads to gas leakage. A more serious drawback at this early stage of commercial adoption is the limited number of gas canisters leading to interrupted gas supply - a problem that requires immediate attention.