Profitability Analysis Of Natural Rubber Tapping In Southern Nigeria

The study was a conducted to analyse cost and returns to rubber tapping in Southern Nigeria .Structured questionnaires were administered to a random sample of 129 tappers . Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and budgetary technique. The result indicated that males dominated rubber tapping, all of the tappers were literate for they have one form of formal education or the other and all of them were trained before tapping. A mean of 387 trees were tapped per day with output per man day of 14.02 kg and an annual output of 2,550.53 kg of dry rubber respectively. The result of the budgetary analysis show that total revenue (TR) and gross margin (GM) and net farm income (NFI)/ hectare were of N148,592.50,159.50 , N102,953.58 and N 14,214.11 respectively. The study also identified rubber plantation management problems which include, poor maintenance of plantations, irregular wage payment, inadequate transport, inadequate housing near plantation and inadequate salary/ wage. The study recommended an increased wage package, prompt payment of wages, provision of transport and maintenance of plantation to overcome the identified problems.. Keywords: Profitability, natural rubber, Southern NigeriaJORIND Vol. 5 (2) 2007: pp. 17-1