Educating the Community in an Effort to Improve the Quality of
Rubber: A Case of Karang Intan Constituency in Banjar District of
South Kalimantan Province in Indonesia
Rizali Hadi
Universitas Lambung Mangkurat
Keywords: community rubber, community economy, image quality, latex, lump, and SIR.
Abstract: Though Banjar district is known as a city of diamond, it is an also famous for its community based rubber
production. According to BKPMD Kalsel (2015) 89.9% of rubber produced is from the local community. The
constituency of Karang Intan consists of 26 rubber producing villages which have existed since the Dutch era.
Rubber is the main income earning product for this community. The newly tapped Latex is thickened using
sap vinegar (formic acid or accident) to form lump. It is this lump which is then bought by its collectors from
local producers (tappers) and then sold to rubber processing plants in Banjarmasin, i.e.; SIR10 and SIR20 for
export. In accordance with the Dry Rubber Content (KKK) standards the price of wet rubber for each kilogram
ranges from Rp. 2,500.00 to Rp. 6,500.00. The price of dry rubber ranges from 10,000.00 to Rp. 13.000,00.
However, besides Karang Intan rubber, there is rubber from other areas such as Pleihari, Danau Salak, and
Hulu Sungai which is purchased by factories at a higher price. Rubber from Karang Intan is of low price
because of its poor quality. After an investigation, it has been established that during the processing of rubber,
the farmers use Urea NSP fertilizers (agricultural fertilizers) as thickener component. Using NSP fertilizer as
a thickener is not bad but it affects the quality of the rubber. In this case, farmers of Karang Intan need to be
educated about the importance of quality and how to produce quality rubber. They should know that good
quality rubber leads to better rubber prices. In this regard, the district department of industry and trading of
Banjar through groups has attempted to provide acid ant vinegar which helps in the thickening of rubber
however, continuous monitoring and education efforts are required to improve the image quality of Karang
Intan rubber.
1 INTRODUCTION
In South Kalimantan, 89.9% of rubber produced is
from smallholder rubber plantations (BKPMD,
2015). For Banjar district, the main income earning
sector is agriculture and plantation. In the past, for
this area agriculture was considered as an effort to
grow rice either in wetland rice fields, or in fields on
dry land. With time, there developed a culture of
planting in the formerly agricultural dry lands,
replacing rice with other crops such as rubber which
is a cash crop, then the farmers would look for another
more fertile land for their rice. The land planted with
rubber could then be called rubber plantation. In the
Dutch era South Kalimantan was famous for its
community rubber products. The community
economy grew strong, because basically they had
gardens as an investment that produced sustainably.
However, of recent the price of rubber has declined
and continues to dwindle its lowest due to (a) the
abundance of rubber products which has taken course
increasingly widespread rubber plantation areas, (b)
the rubber plant manufacturers have found mixtures
other than natural rubber or synthetic rubber. (C) the
decreasing quality of rubber tapped by the community
because of the wrong way of thickening from latex to
lump. The causes that is (a) and (b) are national
problems which must be solved through government
regulations. This research puts its attention on
problem (c) that is the low quality of rubber produced
by the community members.
Depending on the information obtained from the
field investigation, the author established that Banjar
district which was formerly famous for its diamond,
602
Hadi, R.
Educating the Community in an Effort to Improve the Quality of Rubber: A Case of Karang Intan Constituency in Banjar District of South Kalimantan Province in Indonesia.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (ICEEE 2017), pages 602-606
ISBN: 978-989-758-308-7
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

it has all over a sadden turned into a famous district
for rubber production, mostly the constituency of
Karang Intan whose biggest population lives on
rubber farming. This constituency consists of 26
villages, and there are 20 villages that are mostly
planted with rubber, namely: Bi'ih, Sungai Besar Ulu,
Sungai Besar Ilir, Tangga, Mali-mali, Arpah River,
Habirau, Sungai Asam, Mandi Kapau, Carikan
Awang Bangkal Barat, Awang Bangkal Timur,
Padang Panjang, West Wind Bath, East Wind Bath,
Sirang Lake, Piris Stone, Nyiur Island, Babar and
Balau. Among the villages, Bi'ih's most extensive
village has a rubber plantation area. According to
Pambakal Bi'ih, H. Abdul Malik (2017) Bi'ih village
with population of 1,875 people (600KK) owns 900
rubber plantation and 400 ha of agricultural land.
There are many rubber gardens compared to usual
farmland. The people of Bi'ih Village not only have a
rubber plantation in their village, but also have
expanded their gardening to villages in the villages of
Karang Intan. This has led to a saying that the Bi'ih
people are synonymous with the nickname rubber
farmers, their work from generation to generation
right from the Dutch era, the Japanese era until now
is rubber production.
This research focuses on the image of rubber
produced in Karang Intan, especially from Bi'ih
village whose rubber is considered to be of very low
quality. According to Pambakal H. Abdul Malik, the
main reason is because of the way the thickening of
rubber from latex to lump is conducted. According to
the scientific guidance, the thickening of rubber
should use a mixture of acid ants, however, many
people do it in a conventional way. The conventional
manner in which the latex: (a) is precipitated mixed
with water, (b) mixed with leaves or juice of gadung
tubers, (c) mixed with alum, (d) mixed with Urea NSP
fertilizer. This method is easy and cheap, however,
though the lump appear to be much or big, inside, it
is full of pores that contain water.
There are several causes, it may be because: (a)
the local farmers do not understand the good practices
in thickening rubber, (b) there may be speculation
from the collectors who buy the product, (c) the
farmers may be less honest regarding quality. This
research was conducted in Karang Intan constituency
and purposively performed in the village of Bi'ih, in-
depth interviews with rubber growers, traders of
rubber, and collectors or village chiefs were
conducted.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The establishment of smallholder rubber plantations
in Kalimantan was a Dutch idea to utilize the formerly
communal land for the cultivation rubber. This idea
started in the village of Mangkatip (in Central
Kalimantan). The idea was put to implementation in
1860 by bringing rubber seeds from plantations in
Malaya and Singapore. This was after the Dutch had
observed the farming practice of people in
Kalimantan who used to shift from one cultivation
field to another looking for new fertile places. The
Dutch directed the communities to plant "care rubber"
which later turned to be "rubber" or "kararaba". The
experiment of planting on the formerly abandoned
land succeeded. Because of the practice of returning
to the previously abandoned land, the farmers were
then referred to as turn back cultivators or shifting
cultivators (Kurniawan, 2011). The community
members felt good and were happy because of having
rubber plantations which worked as a supplement to
their family income. In the process, Netherlands then
developed rubber plantations almost all over the
entire island of Borneo. According to Fradolin Ukur
(1994) "in an agricultural system, we can find
alternative forms of farming methods that can be
developed into approaches in the development of
farming communities. In Borneo the cultivators have
long developed a cyclical agroforestry system
alternately by planting former fields with rattan,
rubber, or other plants"
Rubber is an export commodity which is required
to meet the needs of factories in producing materials
made of rubber, such as vehicle tires, shoes, and
others. With the increasing demand for rubber
products, land clearing in Kalimantan continues to be
carried out by communities and companies. The
quality of rubber from smallholder farmers is difficult
to control, whereas the quality of a good product
determines the price and usually benefits.
According to Sannia, Ismono and Viantimala
(2013) in there research, they mention that the cause
of the low quality of smallholder rubber is due to: (a)
not using ant acids as latex thickeners into lumps; (b)
inserting other unfit components in the thickening
process. The commonly used parameter for latex
quality at the farm level is the rubber content. Lump
quality parameters used are visual parameters such as
color, elasticity, dirt level and odor or smell. With
these quality parameters, natural rubber can be
differentiated. Differences in quality make the prices
to be different. Improving the quality of rubber should
be perceived by the farmers in the form of value-
Educating the Community in an Effort to Improve the Quality of Rubber: A Case of Karang Intan Constituency in Banjar District of South
Kalimantan Province in Indonesia
603

added income with the increased quality of processed
rubber produced.
Napitupulu (2013) who also researched on the
quality of rubber established that the farmers are
aware of the low quality rubber.This means they have
full knowledge of what they do. This was discovered
through interviews that 79.05 percent of rubber
producing farmers intentionally mixed dirt and / or
unrecommended component into rubber latex during
the tapping process and in the post-tapping phase.
While the remaining 20.95 percent only insert the
mixture at the time of the first day of cutting in each
harvest cycle (3-5 days) to speed up the rubber sap
clotting and to avoid overflowing they mix water in
the sap together mostly during the rainy season.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
It is true that is South Kalimantan, the prices of rubber
vary person to person and from places to place
because of quality. For instance rubber from Danau
Salak can be bought at a higher price because of its
good quality. In Karang Intan because of low quality
rubber is usually purchased with a low price. Rubber
from Karang Intan is known as low quality rubber in
the whole of Banjar district. After investigation it
turned out the cause is due to the way the thickening
of latex into a lump is not in accordance with the
recommended steps.
To discuss the economic benefits of using formic
acid as a thickener latex into a lump, it can be seen in
the displayed results of the research regarding
smallholder rubber farmers in the District of Tulang
Bawang, Lampung, and the calculation of rubber
profit obtained by farmers from Karang Intan
constituency in South Kalimantan.
3.1 A Study in the Constituency of
Tulang Bawang
Wiyanto and Nunung Kusnadi (2013) conducted a
research on the conventional rubber freeze conducted
in Tulang Bawang District, they established that there
those who follow the program and also those who do
not follow the program. To improve the quality of the
rubber there are programs that recommend to (a) use
ant acids, (b) keep the rubber from the dirt. A
fascinating outcome was obtained, after comparing
the two groups, it was discovered that those who
followed the program increased their profits by Rp.
500.00 per kg.
Prior to their efforts to improve the quality of the
use of formic acid village farmer who were accepted
in the program and non-program members
respectively obtained Rp. 24,785,206.00 and Rp.
28,409,250.00, after they had tried to improve the
quality of their farm products, they received an
increase amounting to Rp. 27,871,411.00 for the
village program and Rp. 28,871,090.00 for non-
program village members. This is reflected in table 1.
The study was conducted on two sample sites (A
and B), one location i.e. A sample which is
conventional rubber thickening method that does not
use ant acid, and one sample B that is in its location
have used acid ant. Recorded the sale of rubber
tapped for two days. In this location sample is then
carried out program of rubber quality improvement.
Afterwards, the sale of the two-day wiretapping
results to see the price increase after following the
rubber quality improvement program.
Table 1: Comparing sales of rubber after and before following the program.
Sample
Thickening of
Latex
Before the
Program
After the Program
Increase in
price
%
A
Not yet used acid
ants
24,785,206.00
27,875,411.00
3,090,205
12.47
B
After using acid
ants
28,409,250.00
28,871,090.00
461,840
1.63
3,623,994.00
14.10
Source: Wiyanto and Nunung Kusnadi (2013)
It is seen that there price increase for sample A
which previously did not use acid ant and after the
program is Rp. 3,090,205.00 or 12.47% indicating
that the use of ant acid and cleaning latex, the
proceeds of the sale rose to Rp. 3,090,205 or 12.47%.
For sample B the thickening method has been using
acid ant after the program, there is still an increase of
Rp. 461,840.00 because before the program has
received an increase of Rp. 3,623,994.00. This means
that sample B has received an increase of Rp.
3,623,994,00 + 461,840,00 = Rp. 4,085,834.00 or
14.10%. This increase is significant to increase the
income of rubber farmers.
ICEEE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Economic Education and Entrepreneurship
604

3.2 Quality Problem of Karang Intan
Rubber
The collectors of rubber in Karang Intan buy from
their rubber farmers for two days then sell to a
processing factory in Banjarmasin. The price
benchmark is given by the factory, which is the
lowest and highest price. The would price of rubber
during the transaction is determined through
negotiations which also depend on quality of the
rubber being sold.
Table 2: Challenges faced by rubber producers in the constituency of Karang Intan.
Harvest for Two
Days
Tapper
Thickener
Crumb Rubber
Product
Commercial
Rubber System
Latex
Rubber farmers every
day tap rubber trees to
store latex to be thickened
into lumps, sold to
collectors
Lump :
Traders buy from rubber farmers,
rubber that has been thickened.
Saved two days later sold to
Crumb Rubber factory
SIR10 and SIR20
The factory processes the
rubber lumps into SIR10 and
SIR20 then shipped to the next
product processing plant,
either in locally or Overseas
Rubber collectors in Kecamatan Karang intan
recorded 12 people: Suri Adi, Rosehan, Ali, Baihaqi,
Aris, H. Abdul Wahid, Irwansyah, H, Juniansyah, H.
Jahri, Hairil, H. Bain and H. Munir. There is a
difficulty in obtaining data in numbers, because these
collectors have no written record. Representing
fellow collectors, Suri Adi gives an illustration that
the results of his purchase for two days brought to
Banjarmasin. Rubber there are three classes or
criteria, namely (a) dry rubber with the upper price (b)
mid-middle rubber with the middle price and (c) wet
rubber with the bottom price. They collect rubber
using pickup trucks loaded 1 ton per pick up. After
collected from rubber farmers enough 2 pickup they
take to the processing plant in Banjarmasin. Factory
or Crumb Rubber who bought rubber from the
collector is PT. Karya Sejati, PT. Balimas, PT Kapuas
and PT Sampit in Banjarmasin and surrounding areas.
Table 3: Factory price scheme.
Purchase 2 days thick wet
rubber
Criteria of quality and price assessment and weight
Dry
Semi Dry
Wet
Asal = 2.000 kg
@6.500,00 =
Rp.13.000.000,00
1.100 kg
1.400 kg
1,600 kg
@ Rp. 13,000.00
@ Rp. 11.900,00
@ Rp. 10,000.00
Rp. 14,300,000.00
Rp. 13,000,000.00
Rp. 16,600,000.00
Rp. 13,000,000.00
Rp.16,000,000.00
Rp.13,000,000.00
Profit
Rp. 1,300,000.00
Rp. 3,600,000.00
Rp. 3,000,000.00
It appears from this scheme the collectors prefer
to sell semi-dry and wet rubber, at a price of Rp.
11,900.00 and Rp. 10,000.00 per kg. A gain is higher
than dry rubber. This price scheme may be
situational, and the purchase price of thick rubber can
vary from Rp. 2,500.00 to Rp. 6,500.00.
Determination of the selling price to this factory also
depends on the negotiation, between the ranges of Rp.
10,000.00 to Rp. 13,000.00. The thick rubber that is
not good enough, will shrink more time to the factory.
The thick rubber that uses the acid of the ant is not
much shrinkage.
According to the village head, in fact it has been
often been done through counselling by district
department of industry and trading o about the
benefits of using acid ant, by showing scientific
studies. In addition, the collectors have also helped
supply the acid ants. But unfortunately the effort was
less successful.
Rubber that goes into the plant in-grade first, cut
into pieces using a circle machine to see the pores and
density. A thick rubber that uses acidic ants is usually
solid, whereas using other thickeners such as Urea or
NSP fertilizers, will look a lot of pores and in it there
Educating the Community in an Effort to Improve the Quality of Rubber: A Case of Karang Intan Constituency in Banjar District of South
Kalimantan Province in Indonesia
605

is water content. Rubber that looks a lot of this
porridge will drop the price, even less than Rp.
10,000.00. Rubber from Karang Intan which can
usually be estimated at Rp. 8,000.00 only per kg
while those from other regions such as from Sungai
Danau can be sold Rp. 10,000.00 or Rp.11,000.00.
Image that the rubber from Karang Intan constituency
as a low quality rubber is already attached. Collectors
will be easy to negotiate if the rubber is thickened
using acid ant, can approach the dry rubber with a
better price. The accumulated rubber in the factory is
then processed to become SIR10 and SIR20 rubber in
accordance with Standard Indonesia Rubber, which is
then sent to rubber product manufacturers, such as tire
factories, either domestically or exported abroad.
The question is why rubber tappers in the
constituency of Karang Intan not many of them want
to use acid ant. According to the Village Head Bi'ih,
H. Abdul Malik, who was also a collector, from
experience and observation, the less likely they are
being dishonest. The thought of tappers is: (a). They
see pricing and rubber heavy calculations are still
profitable, they just want to quickly make money and
not too much trouble; (B). Using agricultural
fertilizers, Urea NSPs, it's a quick condensed process
and fertilizer is easy to obtain, since they are
generally cultivated as farmers; (C). There are still
collectors who want to buy it, because there are also
factories who want to receive it, to be blended with
other rubber.
It seems that these rubber tappers considers the
conventional tapping process is not wrong, because
there are still collectors and crumb rubber factories
that receive it. They do not mind if the price is
reduced. They seem to have no interest in improving
the quality of rubber and that quality improvement is
only necessary, in accordance with government
programs. Farmers or rubber tappers in the
constituency of Karang Intan must also improve their
rubber quality, to improve their rubber quality image.
4 CONCLUSIONS
A fact that the quality of rubber in the constituency of
Karang Intan is lower than the quality of rubber the
surrounding area. The quality of this rubber is low
because the tappers do not use acid ant in the process
thickening their rubber product. This low quality
results in low cost. Bargaining a nice deal during
selling becomes difficult. However, rubber tappers
can generally accept this situation because they want
to quickly get money. It is unlikely that these rubber
tappers will intend to cheat, because they accept the
price cut proposed by the buyers. The industrial and
trading department of the district of Banjar has often
conducted counselling about the quality of this
rubber, but received less response from rubber
farming communities and other related parties.
It is suggested that the department should
establish a post for Field Extension Workers who
must be tasked by the responsibility of campaigning
and educating farmers to maintain the quality of
rubber in Karang Intan. Direct supervision can help to
educate farmers on to obtain good quality rubber by
using better rubber thickening acid ant. Given this
post, it is expected that this effort to improve the
quality of rubber will be successful.
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