The Rubber
sector is in charge of cultivating rubber for semi-finished
products that are exported. It is one of the three main Crop
Groups of the CDC. The sector is made up of nine rubber estates
of an average size of 1,500 hectares and six factories.
IMMATURE
RUBBER PLANTATION
The eleven
rubber estates covering a total land area of 37,917 hectares include,
Kompina, Likomba, Malende, Matouke, Mbonge, Meanja, Missellele,
Mukonje, Pendamboko and Tombel. Malende, Mbonge and Meanja each
has a small Rubber Sheet Factory while the three main factories
are located in Tiko, Mukonje and Pendamboko. There is also a Central
Rubber Laboratory at Tiko which is in charge of specifications
concerning technically specified rubber i.e CNR 10, 3CV and 3L
grades in accordance with ISO 2000 and SMR norms.
Each estate
is run by an Estate Manager who is an agronomist and the three
main factories are run by a Factory Managers who are engineers.
Each unit has Field or Factory Supervisors and an Accountant that
help to run the affairs of the unit. The Group Rubber Office situated
at Tiko and it is the main Administrative unit that co-ordinates
the activities of the entire group. The staff of this office constitutes
the Group Manager, the Crop Group Accountant, the Human Resources
Officer, the Group Management Controller and the Agricultural
Quality Manager
Tapped and collected Cuplumps waiting
to be transported to the Factory
The activities of this sector
is the entire cultivation of rubber. The nurse and plant different
clones of rubber according to the geographical specifications
of the area for maximum output. Upkeep includes slashing, weeding
and disease control. The mature rubber is tapped in a D4 system
where the plantation is subdivided into four sectors and each
sector is tapped once in four days in rotation. The tapped rubber
is collected soon after tapping as latex or later as cuplumps.
These two different products are transported to the respective
factories accordingly. The latex is processed for sheet rubber
or CV while the cuplump is processed for CNR10.
RUBBER TAPPING
CDC also
deals with Smallholders who grow small individual rubber plantations
around the CDC plantations and Contract Rubber tappers who are
contracted to tap the old CDC areas. These are specialised in
cuplump tapping and their crop is also collected and processed
by CDC.
Odilious MBUYEH
RUBBER TAPPING
