Affiliation(s)
1. Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
2. Department of Economic Development, Faculty of Economics, Semarang State University, Kota Semarang, Jawa Tengah 50229, Indonesia
3. Department of Social and Development Sciences, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Researchers and extensionists would pursue their interests to develop
new inventions and encourage rubber smallholders to adopt new technology and
practices to increase production of their holdings. Three interrelated systems,
research and development (R&D) system,
extension/delivery system and client (smallholders) system, are responsible to
make the rubber industry viable and dynamic. The extension system is also
encouraged to identify and carry out related research activities besides its
own core function to enhance clients’ understanding and to use the findings as
basis to plan effective strategies for implementation. Knowledge acquisition
among clients is critical in capacity building process. With knowledge, clients
tend to develop favorable attitude and use it to develop specific skill to
practice recommended technology and new practices. Necessity is the mother of
invention in times of need, especially when rubber price is low. Researchers,
extensionists and smallholders are “forced” to collaborate and become creative
to find alternative ways and uses of natural rubber to increase demand of the
commodity. When natural rubber price is low, funding for research needs to be
maintained at current level, or in some cases, funding is increased
to ensure that the industry is not void of new technology and new products. The
main goal of the rubber industry is to ensure that new technology and practices
are continuously being generated and developed by researchers to be adopted by
rubber smallholders. The adoption of new technology and practices by
smallholders ensures that production of natural rubber continues to increase,
while income of smallholders is maintained or
increased at an appreciative level to offset low rubber prices. There is an
inclination in the rubber industry that when the commodity’s price is low,
activities and programs related to research and dissemination of research
results would follow to be reduced, resulting in stagnation and opportunities for future growth of the
industry. The National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) should be used to harness
expertise in research among researchers of local universities, as well as to
cooperate among extensionists from agencies at state and national levels to
help disseminate research results. The NBOS can reduce cost, and has bigger impacts
and wider applications of natural rubber for local and international markets.
KEYWORDS
Necessity, research and extension agenda,
rubber smallholders.
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