[caption id="attachment_97223" align="alignleft" width="300"]
DPL Top management and officials from Rubber Research Institute with rubber farmers who received fertilizer under the DPL Firstlight initiative.[/caption]
By Uwin Lugoda
Kariyawasam Pathinage Karunadasa is a school teacher turned rubber farmer who has depended on the rubber plantation industry in the Monaragala District for the past 42 years. He also happens to be one of the first to bring the industry to the region, after having seen the need for a new source of income for the locals.
However, due to his advancing age and multiple medical surgeries, Karunadasa’s role in the local rubber industry almost ended a decade ago. This was due to the taxing and time-consuming process of harvesting rubber and pressing them into sheets with the use of chemicals.
Similar to Karunadasa, this inconvenience was felt by hundreds of rubber farmers, while also not being able to receive a proper and trusted payment for their products. But everything changed 12 years ago when Dipped Products PLC (DPL), a global leader in retail, industrial, and medical hand-wear, introduced the “Firstlight” initiative.
The initiative sets out to buy the milk of the rubber tree from these farmers, which was significantly more convenient than the earlier method of harvesting and selling rubber. The company uses this initiative to provide these farmers with everything they need for the harvesting and storing of the milk, and even send agents to collect the milk upon the request of the farmers.
DPL has taken it a step further by also ensuring fair trade and pricing for the harvest, and has gone on to raise awareness on rubber production by conducting workshops with farmers in order to enhance the productivity of their crops. This has helped them empower and support 3,000 smallholder rubber farmers and their families in Monaragala.
The company continued their goal of empowering and uplifting the livelihoods of farmer co-operative societies in its loyalty network on 28 August by investing Rs. 2.1 million towards the distribution of fertiliser for 1,500 smallholder rubber producers in the district. A total of 90,000 kg of fertiliser was distributed among four DPL Loyalty Farmer Societies across the Monaragala District at the event organised for the ninth consecutive year.
[caption id="attachment_97224" align="alignright" width="300"]
DPL Deputy Managing Director Pushpika Janadheera handing over fertilizer to rubber smallholder farmer R. M Indrawathi[/caption]
During this event, DPL Deputy Managing Director Pushpika Janadheera told the media that their main business was in manufacturing rubber gloves and exporting it to around 70 countries across the globe. Due to this, he stated that they began the Firstlight project with the objective of sourcing the raw material locally rather than importing it.
He stated that Sri Lanka is not self-sufficient when it comes to manufacturing latex products because local farmers can only contribute 40% of the raw material to the industry, while the rest is sourced via imports.
Today, the country’s rubber products manufacturing sector needs around 135,000 MT of natural rubber per annum. However, the country is not able to produce this quantity of natural rubber, therefore compelling the nation to import around 60,000 MT of natural rubber annually.
“Our objective is to have a sustainable supply chain developed for our latex products, and with this goal we can also develop the communities involved in the supply chain. We also want to give the farmers who provide this raw material a fair price – more or less on a par with international prices – by buying it directly from them,” said Janadheera.
According to Janadheera, 10 years ago, Sri Lanka sourced 60-65% of its raw materials locally, but with the increase in production of rubber products, the percentage of raw materials sourced locally has dropped.
He explained that to have a value addition on the rubber products manufactured in Sri Lanka and exported to other countries, the raw material involved in the supply chain must be locally sourced. He stated that the country’s production of rubber accounts for less than 1% of global production, while countries like Thailand and Indonesia contribute around 30%.
He said the main reason for Sri Lanka’s low production levels is the land availability, with most of it being used for residential purposes, and a lack of productivity compared to these other international markets.
To combat this productivity issue, Janadheera said the local farmers need to be given the proper knowledge and technical knowhow on things such as how to grow the rubber trees, treat them, tap them, and what are the best times to tap them. He stated that unlike the local rubber plantations, plantations in the international markets tap their trees early morning and even have devised methods to tap these trees during the rainy periods, which include the use of rain guards.
“What we want to do is bring this knowledge to the local farmers and educate them on increasing their productivity. This will not only increase the volume they collect, but also the income they make. This is why we provide them with the necessary tools such as fertiliser, so that they know how to treat their trees properly and get a better yield.”
As of now, DPL depends on local rubber farmers for 50% of their raw material needs, while having to depend on imports for the remaining 50%. Janadheera stated that out of these rubber suppliers, their biggest farmer base is currently in Monaragala. They also source rubber from areas such as Hanwella, Avissawella, Kuruwita, and Bibile, with another Firstlight project set to begin in Kegalle.
He stated that the initiative refused to abandon their farmer base even during the toughest of times, including the recent Covid-19 outbreak. Once the pandemic entered the country, the company had to shut down their operations. However, fortunately for them, the Sri Lankan Government helped restart the factories after only two weeks of the closure, adhering to all the safety precautions, he explained.
“The Government saw the importance of gloves, especially in the current environment, and helped us reopen almost immediately. But even during the two-week closure period, we never let our rubber farmers feel the impact of the virus, and instead collected the milk and stored it in our storage facilities using our preservation methods.”
Firstlight has also hosted several community capacity building programmes including planting and replanting, establishing and maintaining plant nurseries, health camps, books and stationery donations for children, scholarships, school and pre-school development, and technical support and training programmes for producers.
Karunadasa stated that these were some of the main reasons he and other farmers chose to exclusively sell to DPL. He explained that the absence of an intermediary person and the reputation of the company further solidified their trust.
According to Janadheera, after seeing the success and income generated by these farmers, more farmers come on board each year. He also stated that the increase in production of rubber products has even garnered interest from the Government, putting an emphasis on developing the farmer base and encouraging more people to be a part of this industry.
“We have successfully been able to enhance livelihoods at the grassroots of the Sri Lankan economy. Simultaneously, these initiatives have generated value at a national scale through the development of one of the country’s most essential export crops. Particularly at a time when our nation faces significant economic challenges owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, we believe that such social enterprise business models hold the key to sustainable prosperity for all Sri Lankans.”
DPL Top management and officials from Rubber Research Institute with rubber farmers who received fertilizer under the DPL Firstlight initiative.[/caption]
By Uwin Lugoda
Kariyawasam Pathinage Karunadasa is a school teacher turned rubber farmer who has depended on the rubber plantation industry in the Monaragala District for the past 42 years. He also happens to be one of the first to bring the industry to the region, after having seen the need for a new source of income for the locals.
However, due to his advancing age and multiple medical surgeries, Karunadasa’s role in the local rubber industry almost ended a decade ago. This was due to the taxing and time-consuming process of harvesting rubber and pressing them into sheets with the use of chemicals.
Similar to Karunadasa, this inconvenience was felt by hundreds of rubber farmers, while also not being able to receive a proper and trusted payment for their products. But everything changed 12 years ago when Dipped Products PLC (DPL), a global leader in retail, industrial, and medical hand-wear, introduced the “Firstlight” initiative.
The initiative sets out to buy the milk of the rubber tree from these farmers, which was significantly more convenient than the earlier method of harvesting and selling rubber. The company uses this initiative to provide these farmers with everything they need for the harvesting and storing of the milk, and even send agents to collect the milk upon the request of the farmers.
DPL has taken it a step further by also ensuring fair trade and pricing for the harvest, and has gone on to raise awareness on rubber production by conducting workshops with farmers in order to enhance the productivity of their crops. This has helped them empower and support 3,000 smallholder rubber farmers and their families in Monaragala.
The company continued their goal of empowering and uplifting the livelihoods of farmer co-operative societies in its loyalty network on 28 August by investing Rs. 2.1 million towards the distribution of fertiliser for 1,500 smallholder rubber producers in the district. A total of 90,000 kg of fertiliser was distributed among four DPL Loyalty Farmer Societies across the Monaragala District at the event organised for the ninth consecutive year.
[caption id="attachment_97224" align="alignright" width="300"] DPL Deputy Managing Director Pushpika Janadheera handing over fertilizer to rubber smallholder farmer R. M Indrawathi[/caption]
During this event, DPL Deputy Managing Director Pushpika Janadheera told the media that their main business was in manufacturing rubber gloves and exporting it to around 70 countries across the globe. Due to this, he stated that they began the Firstlight project with the objective of sourcing the raw material locally rather than importing it.
He stated that Sri Lanka is not self-sufficient when it comes to manufacturing latex products because local farmers can only contribute 40% of the raw material to the industry, while the rest is sourced via imports.
Today, the country’s rubber products manufacturing sector needs around 135,000 MT of natural rubber per annum. However, the country is not able to produce this quantity of natural rubber, therefore compelling the nation to import around 60,000 MT of natural rubber annually.
“Our objective is to have a sustainable supply chain developed for our latex products, and with this goal we can also develop the communities involved in the supply chain. We also want to give the farmers who provide this raw material a fair price – more or less on a par with international prices – by buying it directly from them,” said Janadheera.
According to Janadheera, 10 years ago, Sri Lanka sourced 60-65% of its raw materials locally, but with the increase in production of rubber products, the percentage of raw materials sourced locally has dropped.
He explained that to have a value addition on the rubber products manufactured in Sri Lanka and exported to other countries, the raw material involved in the supply chain must be locally sourced. He stated that the country’s production of rubber accounts for less than 1% of global production, while countries like Thailand and Indonesia contribute around 30%.
He said the main reason for Sri Lanka’s low production levels is the land availability, with most of it being used for residential purposes, and a lack of productivity compared to these other international markets.
To combat this productivity issue, Janadheera said the local farmers need to be given the proper knowledge and technical knowhow on things such as how to grow the rubber trees, treat them, tap them, and what are the best times to tap them. He stated that unlike the local rubber plantations, plantations in the international markets tap their trees early morning and even have devised methods to tap these trees during the rainy periods, which include the use of rain guards.
“What we want to do is bring this knowledge to the local farmers and educate them on increasing their productivity. This will not only increase the volume they collect, but also the income they make. This is why we provide them with the necessary tools such as fertiliser, so that they know how to treat their trees properly and get a better yield.”
As of now, DPL depends on local rubber farmers for 50% of their raw material needs, while having to depend on imports for the remaining 50%. Janadheera stated that out of these rubber suppliers, their biggest farmer base is currently in Monaragala. They also source rubber from areas such as Hanwella, Avissawella, Kuruwita, and Bibile, with another Firstlight project set to begin in Kegalle.
He stated that the initiative refused to abandon their farmer base even during the toughest of times, including the recent Covid-19 outbreak. Once the pandemic entered the country, the company had to shut down their operations. However, fortunately for them, the Sri Lankan Government helped restart the factories after only two weeks of the closure, adhering to all the safety precautions, he explained.
“The Government saw the importance of gloves, especially in the current environment, and helped us reopen almost immediately. But even during the two-week closure period, we never let our rubber farmers feel the impact of the virus, and instead collected the milk and stored it in our storage facilities using our preservation methods.”
Firstlight has also hosted several community capacity building programmes including planting and replanting, establishing and maintaining plant nurseries, health camps, books and stationery donations for children, scholarships, school and pre-school development, and technical support and training programmes for producers.
Karunadasa stated that these were some of the main reasons he and other farmers chose to exclusively sell to DPL. He explained that the absence of an intermediary person and the reputation of the company further solidified their trust.
According to Janadheera, after seeing the success and income generated by these farmers, more farmers come on board each year. He also stated that the increase in production of rubber products has even garnered interest from the Government, putting an emphasis on developing the farmer base and encouraging more people to be a part of this industry.
“We have successfully been able to enhance livelihoods at the grassroots of the Sri Lankan economy. Simultaneously, these initiatives have generated value at a national scale through the development of one of the country’s most essential export crops. Particularly at a time when our nation faces significant economic challenges owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, we believe that such social enterprise business models hold the key to sustainable prosperity for all Sri Lankans.”