View of newcomer to the activities of the IRRDB

I was able to travel abroad in several occasions and for various purposes, however had no opportunity to attend any IRRDB activity until August 2002 when they organized their joint workshop on Breeding, Agronomy and Socio-economics in Malaysia and Indonesia. My anticipation from the workshop was twofold. IRRDB workshop would be an ideal place for building up proper contacts for collaborative research projects and that was one of the difficulties I faced in previous projects. Also, I wanted to be up to date with the knowledge of recent developments in other rubber growing countries, as this would be a place where scientists discuss even unpublished grey literature. With these driving forces, I participated for the workshop and I’m quite happy to mention that those objectives were achieved beyond the expectations. For instances, I was able to build up very close links with scientists from even non-English speaking countries such as China, Cambodia etc. Also in research prioritization in agronomy, some of my ideas were fruitful. Therefore, I do not intend to comment here on the direct scientific outputs of the workshop, but on other very useful information which helped to understand what is happening on ground and also personal enthusiasm experienced during period of workshop.

On very first day, we were received by the officers of the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRIM) and accompanied to the newly built Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) lodge in the central research station with no hassle on own transport arrangements. What more important is organizers have employed some volunteered officers of the RRIM to drive vehicles (i.e. not official drivers) providing delegates a good company. Workshop was confined to two days in Malaysia and again with busy schedule for presentations, however organizers did not forget to entertain participants with outside dinners, in particular nine-plate dinner hosted by Director General of the MRB.

On the third day of the workshop, participants arrived Medan, Indonesia and at the airport, they were received by the Director of Rubber Research Institute of Indonesia and accompanied to the hotel. Being a very busy city with lot of social pressure, we didn’t feel free to go out our own, hence such company was very important. However, stay in Medan gave us an opportunity to understand the city life of Indonesia and it was the beginning of magnificent hospitality of Indonesian. Visit made to the Indonesia Rubber Research Institute (IRRI) was informative, however, we cannot forget the lunch given by i.e. fresh natural foods with wonderful fruits like Durian, alias King of Fruit and Rambutan, and then coconut drink!

Visit to Palembang, South Sumatra was not second to Medan, North Sumatra. Workshop was inaugurated by the Governor who interacted with scientists very closely by even having dinner together and singing an especial song for the participants. Traditional dance not only entertained the diners, but also provided an opportunity to understand how rich Indonesian culture be. Visit to a palace of Maharaja envisaged the past prosperity of Indonesia. Nevertheless, visit to Indonesia Disney land and hill-country in Java taught us emerging prosperity and beauty of Indonesia, respectively.

Entertainment provided throughout together with VIP treatment given (NB. We were priority even in airports) made our visit to Indonesia more fascinating. After reading this article, one might think that priority of the workshop has gone to something else which is not highly relevant to the mandate of IRRDB. But the case was not such that; better understanding of culture and enthusiasm with hospitality undoubtedly facilitated the decision making, hence the overall output of workshop, particularly in favour of livelihood of smallholders who are the majority in rubber industry. Therefore, I have no hesitation to mention that it was very successful workshop in every aspect. However, it is a fact that every programme has some negative remarks and could be further improved. Therefore, it is my duty here to make suggestions for further improvements. Being tight programme with limited time allocation for discussion, participants had to work till late night. Therefore, I personally feel that time allocation for the discussions in the future workshops needs to be increased.

Finally, I would say this workshop exposed the world of rubber to me, hence express my sincere gratitude to organizers who had a hard time and in particular to Dr. Abdul Aziz, Secretary General of the IRRDB since without his continuous encouragements, success of the workshop had been doubted.

Lakshman Rodrigo
Principal Research Officer (Intercropping) of the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka