FULL REPORT ON

2019 IRRDB FELLOWSHIPS TRAINING PROGRAMS IN BANGKOK, THAILAND ON 21-28 SEPTEMBER 2019 & IRRDB INTERNATIONAL RUBBER CONFERENCE (IRC) 2019, NAY

PYI TAW & BAGAN, MYANMAR ON 21-28 SEPTEMBER 2019

A. DETAIL OF PARTICIPANT

i. Name : Muhammad Syaarani Bin Danya ii. Agency : Malaysian Rubber Board , RRIM iii. Position : Research Officer iv. Division/Unit : Method & Standard Development Unit/Quality & Technical

Services Division (QTSD)

B. DETAIL OF PROGRAMME

i. Title : IRRDB Fellowships Training Programme 2019 & IRRDB International Rubber Conference (IRC) 2019

ii. Venue : Bangkok, Thailand & Nay Pyi Taw & Bagan, Myanmar iii. Date/Duration : 21 September - 3 October 2019. iv. Organiser : International Rubber Research Development Board (IRRDB)

C. PROGRAMME OBJECTIVE The main objectives of this programme are:

1. Act as a platform for IRRDB participants to discuss and obtain the latest status on the latest information on natural rubber among the IRRDB members and fellow.

2. Enable the young scientists in IRRDB institute to exchange ideas and share ideas on development of natural rubber industry in their member countries

3. Establish effective networks among IRRDB members and fellow.

4. Focus on training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), extension or transfer of technology (TOT), rubber processing as well as research & project management.

5. Become a platform for capacity building and technical assistance related to the development of standards for rubber industry players and rubber products and laboratories that conduct tests related to rubber and rubber products.

D. PARTICIPATING MEMBER COUNTRIES

This program was attended by 15 participants from:

I. Brazil II. Cambodia

III. Cameroon IV. China

V. Ivory Cost VI. Guatemala

VII. India VIII. Indonesia

IX. Liberia X. Malaysia

XI. Myanmar XII. Nigeria

XIII. Sri Lanka XIV. Thailand

XV. Vietnam

E. IRRDB FELLOWSHIP TRAINING 2019

1. OPENING CEREMONY AND INTRODUCTION OF FELLOWSHIP MEMBERS TO RAOT DIVISIONS

The opening ceremony took place at the River Royal Hotel, Bangkok which featured the following activities;

i. Introduction of IRRDB Secretary General, Deputy Governor of RAOT, Director of RRIT, and all the Participants

ii. Welcoming address : Mr Sunan Nuanphomsaku, Deputy Governor of Rubber Authority of Thailand (RAOT)

iii. Welcoming address : Dr. Abdul Aziz S.A.Kadir, Secretary General of IRRDB.

iv. Introduction course : Rubber Processing and the importance of Rubber

Quality.

By: Dr Napawan Lekhavipat Overview of the Course: The Rubber Technology Development in Thailand has two divisions; the Laboratory Division and Research and Development Sections. Responsibilities of Rubber Technology Development in Thailand. She discussed about rubber processing in Thailand and how the quality of raw material being controlled at the processing site.

v. Introduction course : Breaking the Yield Barrier of Rubber: Breeding Superior High Yielding Latex Timber Clone By: Ramli Othman (IRRDB Fellow) Overview of the Course: He discussed about clones choice, yield and barriers to rubber yield. Among the ways Biotechnology can break yield Barrier is as follows;

• Tissue Culture - Mass propagation

• Genetic Engineering - incorporating desirable rubber genes - incorporating desirable foreign genes

vi. Introduction course : Good Agricultural Practices to fully express the

Genetic Potential of the Recommended Clones By: Mr. Tajudin Ismail (IRRDB Fellow) Overview of the Course: He presented Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) as crucial to ensure

success in rubber trees establishment and good growth to achieve high yield potential. The main objective is to obtain vigorous and healthy trees, uniform in girth, high tree stand, thick bark, high latex DRC and high yield on a sustainable and long-term basis. He finally recommended that, smallholders should acquire appropriate GAP for the immature and mature phases of rubber planting. The GAP selected should be implemented effectively to achieve high, almost similar to the yield reported by plant breeders.

vii. Introduction course : Rubber Technology Development in Thailand By: Dr Napawan Lekhavipat Overview of the Course: The Rubber Technology Development in Thailand has two divisions; the Laboratory Division and Research and Development Sections. Responsibilities of Rubber Technology Development in Thailand are;

• Research and Development on rubber technology, rubber processing, rubber products and rubber wood.

• Collaborate with international rubber organizations and rubber research institute on rubber downstream finding.

• Transfer of rubber technology, rubber processing to smallholder, smallholder group and private section.

• Set standards of products, raw rubber industry, rubber wood and rubber products.

• Raw rubber and rubber products testing service, for smallholder group and private section.

viii. Introduction course : Multilateral Clone Exchange Programme.

By: Dr Napawan Lekhavipat. Overview of the course; The aim of the programme is to promote international cooperation between the IRRDB member countries for improving the natural rubber industry (Breeding Group) with the objective of distributing high latex yield clone, high timber clone, and diseases resistance. Member’s countries are India, Srilanka, China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Indonesia e.t.c

Figure 1: IRRDB Secretary General, Dr.Abdul Aziz S.A.Kadir

Figure 2: Deputy Governor of RAOT, Sunan Nuanphomsaku

Figure 3: IRRDB Fellow, Dr. Ramli Osman

Figure 4: IRRDB Fellow, Mr. Tajudin Ismail

Figure 5: Dr Napawan Lekhavipat, Director of Rubber Technology Research & Development Division, RAOT

Figure 6: Participant of IRRDB Fellowship Program 2019

2. PROVINCE VISIT The provinces and centers visited and brief description each centers activities is summarised below: a. BANGKOK : Testing and Certification Center and Rubber Technology and

Development Division - Physical testing of rubber products to determine the rubber properties

such as tensile, resilence, elongation at break and e.t.c.

Figure 7: Physical Test at Rubber Testing Lab. & Rubber Technology Division in

Bangkok.

- Chemical analysis of natural rubber products (quantitative and qualitative analysis) by using FTIR, TGA, DSC and other analytical instruments.

- Latex concentrate analysis to determine TSC, DRC, Dirt content e.t.c

Figure 8: Latex Test at Rubber Testing Lab. & Rubber Technology Division in

Bangkok.

- Research and development on rubber blocks, rubberised road, other vulcanised materials from natural rubber.

Figure 9: Research and development on rubber blocks, rubberised road, other vulcanised materials from natural rubber at Rubber Technology Division in

Bangkok.

- Research and development on cushions, pillows, stress ball and other foam products through forming method by using concentrated latex.

Figure 10: Group Picture at Rubber Testing Lab. & Rubber Technology Division in Bangkok.

b. CHACHOENGSAO:

- Tissue Culture Laboratory and IRRDB Budwood Nursery Clone Exchange; Tissue Culture Lab. conducts research on tissue culture to produce improved planting materials. Exchange IRRDB budwood nursery showed clones from the donor and recipient countries, which include but not limited to India, China, Indonesia e.t.c

Figure 11: Group picture at Tissue Culture Laboratory at Chachoengsao Province

- Kittawee Civil Construction Company; KCCC is a civil construction company that used natural rubber in construction of road called Rubberized Road. The technology is not only adding value to natural rubber value but also give a long span road. The company uses both the latex and dry rubber. It prepares rubber powder by grinding 35% dry rubber and 65 % asphalt. 5 % of the mixture is then added to bitumen to be used directly for construction. Previously, latex mixing was used in their pilot scale (5% latex (DRC content). The drawback of this technique is the latex have the problem with the smell from the latex preservative itself which usually ammonia. The other problem faced is when they used higher than 5% of rubber in the compound they will have problem in mixing which tend to produce sticky mixture. Currently, compounding technique with dry rubber is in their experimentation stage. Dry rubber will turn into powder form at the other company before being compounded to produce rubberized asphalt. By using this technique, they tried to increase the usage of rubber up to 10% but the properties of the products produced is the same as 8% rubber. Therefore, they decided to maintain at 8% of rubber content in their formulation.

Figure 12: Group picture at KCCC company producing rubberized bitumen

c. RAYONG PROVINCE;

- Supak RSS Factory; Supark company will buy the unsmoked sheet from the farmer and smallholder.

- Most of the quality produced by the farmer is met RSS3 specification. The factory will Specialized on processing of RSS, this involves buying of RSS from local producer, washing of the RSS, drying of the RSS, drying in the smoke house, sorting into grades, bailing (35, 50 kg and 111.1 kg), and coating to prevent sticking of the bails during transportation before grade the sheet and exporting out.

- The measurement of the RSS (long and wide) must be checked prior packaging and must have a thickness of 4mm.

- There are several type of RSS available in the market. The number of percentage (%) means the moisture content (%) present in the RSS. The duration for the smoking process will take 3-4 days from the date of sample received. The temperature for smoking the rubber sheet is normally at 38-40°C at the first day of drying and 65°C for 2nd to 3rd day of drying. Sri Lanka shared their technique using granite stone to maintain the heating temperature and improve the drying time to only 1 day and get RSS1 quality. The factory managed to produce 1500 tons per month and 80% will be exported out from Thailand and 20% will be used internally in Thailand. Major importer are from Michelin Company either from America and Europe.

Figure 13 : Visit SUPARK RSS Company

- Bothong Rubber Block Factory; Bothong rubber block industry started in 1999, is a farmers’ cooperative company supported by Thailand government for processing of cuplumps into rubber blocks. Conduct certification test on the block rubber produce. The process starts from collection, drying, crushing, washing, drying, bailing and weighing, and packaging. The co-operative consists of about 1450 local farmers. The company produce RSS (15,000metric tons/year), USS (9,300 metric/year), and STR 20 (36, 00 metric tons/year). Capacity of the production is 2500 tons per month, 80 tons per day. The factory also equipped with TSR laboratory that complies with TISI standards. 5 main TSR test parameter is being tested in the laboratory such as:

- Nitrogen - PRI - Dirt - Ash - Mooney Viscosity

Figure 14 : Visit BOTHONG Cooperative Company

d. BURIRRUM PROVINCE:

- BURIRUM RUBBER RESEARCH CENTER: Buririum Rubber Research Centre has laboratory that is responsible for physical testing of rubber products to determine properties such as tensile, resilence elongation e.t.c. chemical analysis of natural rubber products (quantitative and qualitative analysis), Latex concentrate analysis to determine TSC, DRC, Dirt content e.t.c, Research and development on soil fertilization, and Fertilizer chemical analysis.

Figure 15 : Group photo at Burirum Rubber Research Center

- E-BIDDING RSS AND ADS AT CENTRAL RUBBER MARKET; Collect RSS and ADS from rubber farmers and other small holders, analyze, bail, package, and buy according to RAOT price. The company pays the small holder immediately at point of sales.

- There is auction to get better price for rubber that they sell. They sell & buy RSS, USS, Cuplump & Latex.

- The company who win the auction will be announce at the website. So the company make payment to the farmer and then the company can get the money from the Market department.

- Central Rubber Market control 32 cooperative group network and every network members have 1000 farmers

- Officer of CRM will go to Network market for Quality Control and the staff have to give the certificate from CRM.

- Previously the Network will bring the rubber here, but to reduce the transportation, the officer will go to the network.

- Some farmer directly come here to sell their rubber might be because their place is nearer to the rubber market compared to the network. The is no minimum or maximum limit for the farmer to sell their raw material.

- Rubber price as of 28 September 2019 (Based on DRC 100%): Filed Latex : 39.5 baht/kg Cuplump : 33.5 baht/kg USS : 40.94 baht/kg RSS 3 : 33.6 bath/kg

Figure 16 : Group Picture at E-Bidding RSS & ADS Central Rubber Market

- GAP BRRC PLANTATION; Rubber Plantation Intercropping with banana, vegetables, peanut, sweet potatoes. Rubber coated pond is located inside the plantation to store water. Brief information on the rubber replanting aid model no. 5 (a rubber integrated farming system) was given to each participant as a reference.

Figure 17 : GAP BRRC Plantation

- GAP PLANTATION & AIR DRY SHEET (ADS) PRODUCTION; The owner of the plantation explained about the clone planted in the plantation and the area of the plantation. The latex produced will be sell as latex and also being coagulated as ADS.

- The company produces ADS by coagulating the field latex with formic acid. The coagulated rubber are sheeted through creper to a specific thickness and washed through running water to remove remaining acid. The sheet are then dried for 1 day under sunlight then air dried under roof until completely dried.

Figure 18 : GAP Plantation & Air Dried Sheet (ADS) Production

- RUBBER CUSHIONS AND PILLOW PRODUCTION COMPANY; The company produces cushions and pillows from natural rubber latex concentrates. The company get conc latex from the conc latex processor 60% HA latex. Two options to produce either manual or by using injection mould but this company only made using manual way.

- Demonstration on how they compound the latex to produce latex form was performed.

- In the future, the company planning to improve the drying process by using infrared chamber.

- 10kg concentrated latex is mix with potassium oleate and stir 36rpm around 30 minutes until the foaming up to the needed volume. Then some chemical is added such as DPT and zinc oxide.

- Then, reduce the speed and add ZDEC & ZMBT and sulphur added and finally, sodium silicone floride is added.

- Silicone oil is sprayed to avoid sticky at the mould. Then the latex foam is poured to the pillow mold. Let it sit for a few minutes.

- Then dry it in the steam oven at 80 degree celcius for 30 minutes. - After finish, the pillow is washed and pressed to remove the water. This

process is repeated twice. - 10kg concentrated latex can produce 4 pillows - Capacity is 200 pillows per day - The pillow price is 690 baht per piece 1.3kg/piece.

Figure 19 : Group Picture at Burirum GAP Plantation and Cushion Pillow

Manufacturing Company

3. TRAINEE COUNTRY PRESENTATION The trainee presentation of country report on natural rubber as summarized in the table below;

NO NAME OF TRAINEE COUNTRY TITLE OF PAPER 1 Carla Cristina da

Silva Brazil Rubber Tree Research in São Paulo,

Brazil 2 Pol Sokea

Cambodia The Cambodian National Specification Laboratory

3 Edjenguele Adolphe Cameroon Natural Rubber Status in Cameroon

4 Ding Li China New Development of Research on Natural Rubber Primary Processing

Technology in China 5 Ivory Cost 6 Lu Montufar Guatemala Forests of Natural Rubber in

Guatemala 7 Manoj Kurian Jacob,

India Natural Rubber Production and

Consumption in India 8 Andi Wijaya Indonesia Natural Rubber Status in Indonesia 9 James M. Yekeh Jr. Liberia Overview of the Liberia Rubber

Sector 10 Muhammad

Syaarani Bin Danya Malaysia Country Report of Malaysia -

Natural Rubber 11 Mr. Aye Lwin

Myanmar Current Situation of Natural Rubber Production in Myanmar

12 Fagbemi Emmanuel .A.

Nigeria Rubber Latex Processing/Value Addition

13 P.K. Kapila Sanjeewa Sri Lanka Natural Rubber in Sri Lanka 14 Worapong

Poonsanat Piyada Nawan

Thailand Natural Status in Thailand

15 Nguyen Thanh Truc Vietnam Rubber Research Institute of Vietnam

4. IRRDB International Rubber Conference (IRC 2019), Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar

The conference was held Mingalar Thiri Hotel, Nay Pyi Taw Myanmar and held for 2 days. There a lot of topic being shared by all the speakers. The topic covered from Upstream, Midstream and Downstream. But most of the topics are related to Upstream Sectors.