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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
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