The Rubber Plantation |
The rubber plantation project that a group of my friends, former work colleagues, Marilou and I started back in 2009 is now approaching its fourth (4th) year of growth.
The young trees are now gaining height and girth and should be ready for tapping sometime towards the end of 2013 or early 2014. Once tapping commences Bethany will have 25 years of monthly income and with the just over 4 hectares plantation that will give a financial yield of 30,000 pesos monthly net income.
The trees are maturing |
Our dream was to plant a further 11 hectares which would then on maturity give Bethany Home a monthly income of 125/150,000 pesos, depending on world market prices and demand. This would truly make Bethany self-sufficient in terms of financing the existing facilities and allow the future donations from well-wishers to be used to maintain and update its infrastructure ensuring its long term survival.
Marilou and myself would like to appeal to all former Bethany children their supporters and Bethany well-wishers to collectively donate a little to ensure that this dream of being self-sufficient is realised in the not too distant future as remember it takes five years (5) from planting the rubber tree seedlings to tapping the latex. By planting trees we are also helping the environment and natural rubber is much better as a raw material than oil based plastics.