By: Almasdi Syahza and Brilliant Asmit.

Abstract: The rapid development of agricultural sector in Riau province especially in palm oil commodity had taken over the place of natural rubber cultivation. Since natural rubber cultivation was still run and managed traditionally, its productivity level was low with around 738 kg/ha/year.  Lack of maintenance of the rubber trees resulted in low quality raw rubber or latex and many traditional rubber farmers also still produced impure or unclean raw rubber. Moreover, the price of latex at the farmer’s level was determined by the tauke-tauke desa or the village’s illicit brokers and the farmers did not have the power to bargain with them. The Regional Carrying Capacity Ratio (RCCR) analysis of traditional natural rubber cultivation was 1.53 which means that the raw rubber material available exceeds the capacity of the industry. These conditions therefore suppressed the price of raw rubber from the demand side (industry). To increase the price at the farmer’s level, a processing industry needed to be developed to increase the bargaining power of the rural farmers. The economic multiplier effect index in natural rubber development areas in 2014 decreased to 0.65 from 1.83 in 2010. This decrease shows that the natural rubber cultivation had decelerated. However, the main reason for this decrease was because the rural community was beginning to shift to another commodity, which is palm-oil.

Abstrak: Perkembangan sektor pertanian khususnya komoditi kelapa sawit di Daerah Riau telah menggeser usahatani komoditi karet alam. Perkebunan karet di Riau masih di kelola secara tradisional. Pengelolaannya dilakukan secara sederhana. Tingkat produktivitasnya  rendah, yaitu sekitar 738 kg/ha/tahun.  Kurangnya perawatan menyebabkan kualitas hasil bahan olah karet (Bokar) juga tergolong rendah. Budaya bokar kotor masih mendominasi perilaku petani karet dalam memproduksi bokar. Harga karet di tingkat petani sangat ditentukan oleh toke-toke desa. Petani karet tidak mempunyai kekuatan tawar menawar. Analisis Daya dukung wilayah (DDW) usahatani karet alam sebesar 1,53. Artinya bahan baku yang tersedia melebihi kapasitas olah industri. Kondisi tersebut akan berdampak terhadap penekanan harga dari sisi permintaan (industri). Guna meningkatkan harga dari sisi petani, perlu dikembangkan industri pengolah, sehingga kekuatan tawar petani di pedesaan meningkat. Angka multiplier effect ekonomi di daerah pengembangan karet pada tahun 2014 sebesar 0,65. Sementara tahun 2010 indek  multiplier effect ekonomi di daerah sentra produksi karet 1,83. Menurunnya indek multiplier effect ekonomi memberikan gambaran bahwa usahatani karet menunjukkan perlambatan dibandingkan periode sebelumnya. Hal tersebut lebih disebabkan masyarakat pedesaan mulai bergeser usahataninya ke komoditi lain yakni kelapa sawit.

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Citation:  Syahza, A., Asmit, B., (2017). Acceleration Strategies For Rural Economic Development Through The Development of Natural Rubber Industry in Riau Province, Applied Science and Technology, Vol.1 No.1, pages 472-475. http://www.estech.org