The Origin and Establishment of RRIM
During the early period, prior to the establishment of Rubber Research Institute
of Malaya, there was complete lack of coordination of research on rubber.
The Botanic Gardens at Singapore produced some valuable contributions
to most of the research work then. The few research workers and the facilities
available in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States had
also made some contributions to a better knowledge of the industry during
the initial period on the introduction of commercial planting of rubber
in Malaya.
Early Organisation of the Rubber Research Institute
of Malaya.
The first enactment of the Rubber Research Institute of Malaya provided
for the principal functions of the Institute for the purpose of research
into and investigation of all problems and matters relating to rubber
and the provision of information in this connection. The scientific work
of the Institute was thus directed towards establishing the facts underlying
the cultivation and preparation of rubber and the discovery and application
of fundamental principles for the benefit of the industry. The Institute
also undertook the supply of scientific and technical information and
provided for the dissemination and utilisation in the industry of such
new knowledge as it acquired.
Although the Bill to incorporate the Institute was passed at the Federal
Council meeting held on 29 June 1925., it was not until 26 September 1926
that Dr G. Bryce who was appointed the first Director of the Institute
commenced duty. Before that Dr Bryce worked on the Ceylon Government's
Agricultural Department and the New Guinea.
From 1 November 1926 the Institute took over the Rubber Growers’
Association scientific equipment, and its laboratory at Petaling Estate
was closed down on 31 October 1926. The research and scientific work on
behalf of the rubber industry was transferred to the Institute from the
Agricultural Department. At the same time the non-official research stations
in Malaya were closed down.
Early Accommodation for the Institute
Early in 1926 a request was made to the Government of the Federated Malay
States for a Public Works Department Bunglow on bungsar Estate in Damansara
Road, Kuala Lumpur as the temporary laboratory accommodation of the Institute.
The Government agreed to lease the buildings to the Institute for a period
of five years from 1 March 1926. However, as early as 1929 it was felt
that the buildings occupied by the Institute were inadequate as a permanent
home for its activities and in consequence discussions took place during
that time for a more permanent site. The institute was subsequently relocated
at 260 Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur in the heart of the national capital,
on 19 May, 1937.
Introduction of Research Activities
In the organisation of the scientific work of the Institute it was considered
essential that adequate provision should be made for investigations into
crop improvement and soil management as the central functions of the Institute.
An important process on rubber production and one on which the market
value of the rubber closely depended was that of the preparation of rubber
from the latex. To provide for the investigation and information required
by the industry and to examine new method of preparation, the necessary
staff was required.
In the years about the time of the establishment of the Institute, the
tendency in the tropics, both among scientific workers and practical planters
had been towards a deeper realisation of the fundamental importance of
problems of crop improvement and soil management. In the rubber growing
industry these matters were the burning issues of the day, and so urgent
was the demand for information from the industry that it was at all times
necessary to emphasise the tentative nature of much of the existing information
and to stress the need for investigation to establish the facts.
In the early period of the establishment of the Institute, plant diseases
had been kept under constant observation and as new factors appeared or
new data were obtained, control practices needed to be modified and more
efficient were then investigated upon. However, a true conception of the
pathological work included all the causal factors producing diseases directly
or indirectly. This called for a very thorough investigation into the
pathology of the rubber trees.
It was also during this period that there was a realisation within the
Institute and amongst the planting community of the general lack of knowledge
of tropical crops, of providing a team of workers capable of attacking
the control problems simultaneously from different aspects, and it was
important that provision had to be made for work to be maintained in the
different branches of the Institute’s activities at the same time.
With these matters in view provisions were made for the appointment of
research staff to the four main divisions of the Institute which were
established to study the different aspects of the research activities
of the Institute. The four divisions were the Botanical, Chemical, Pathological
and Soils Divisions. The first main task of the Institute during this
period was to acquire a knowledge of the rubber planting industry on which
to base the programme of work which was a matter of difficulty where the
industry covered a stretch of country some 500 miles long with a considerable
diversity of soils and site conditions. Programme of work was begun to
be drawn up and the programmes were sufficiently comprehensive to be regarded
as a survey of the whole field of work and experience was indicating the
directions in which work was almost urgently required.
Experiment Station
The farm or experiment station must be regarded as an integral part of
any agricultural research station. Since rubber was grown as a perennial
crop and as, in its cultivation, an acre of land was made to carry only
some eighty to hundred individual trees, it was evident from the beginning
that an experiment station for research work on rubber, if it was to subserve
this purpose adequately, must have at its disposal a considerably larger
area of land than was usually devoted to annual crops in the temperate
zone. In addition to the plots, on which basic experiments were to be
conducted, it was of some importance that larger areas should be available
on which results obtained from small experiments could be tried out on
a larger scale. A large area was also necessary for the plant breeder
to try out results of his selection work.
In 1927 the Institute established an Experiment Station on the Sungei
Buloh Reserve, the Government having agreed to alienate 2000 acres in
phases for this purpose. The establishment of the Experiment Station required
a considerable outlay of capital and an equal annual outlay on maintenance.
However, it was anticipated that revenue should accrue from the Experiment
Station when the rubber came into bearing. The early progress of the Station
was both rapid and substantial. In late 1928 the whole area of 2000 acres
was alienated to the Institute.
General Administration and Review of Progress
The Institute in the initial period of its work was confronted with special
needs and demands. Scientific staff were recruited in the United Kingdom
and officers were new to the crop which was to be the subject of their
investigations and to tropical conditions. During the first year or so
a fairly heavy lecture programme in different parts of Malaya was undertaken
with a view of preparing the staff to meet members of the planting community
and thus to become acquainted at first hand with planting problems and
to present planters the available information on problems of practical
importance pending the issue of publications by the Institute for the
dissemination of this information. For similar reasons the Institute had
undertaken a large volume of routine consultative and advisory work both
by correspondence and visits to estates.
The period of 1926-28 was essential one of construction. Salary scales
had been drawn up, scientific staff had to be recruited and bunglows provided
for their accommodation. A building suitable for use as a laboratory had
to be modified and extended. The laboratory had to be equipped and apparatus
and chemicals for the various divisions had to be obtained. A gas plant
and a steam boiler had to be installed and water supply provided. The
laboratory had to be installed and fitted with gas, steam and water pipes.
A supply of electricity had to be specially arranged as the laboratory
building was at some distance from the nearest supply point. A generator
had to be installed to supply the direct current and this and the switchboard
had to be obtained from England.
A system of accounts and the form of the estimated had to be drawn up.
The Library had to be built up from the beginning, books and periodicals
had to be acquired and exchanges sought. The experimental rubber factory,
smokehouse and drying room had to be installed, and so on with many other
matters incidental to the inauguration of a new institution.