Résumé
Rubber Agroforestry Systems (RAS) have been developed by local farmers in South-east Asia (Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia) as soon as the 1920s initially through the development of jungle rubber. Jungle rubber is a very practical and easy way to develop at very low cost non clonal rubber (seedlings) plantations with forest regrowth. Jungle rubber was the main smallholding rubber cropping system until 1950s. Then, for political reasons, clonal plantations with a better productivity were developed though national planting programs in the 1950s in Malaysia, in the 1960s in Thailand and later on in the 1970s in Indonesia. In the 1990s, jungle has disappeared in Malaysia and Thailand when in Indonesia, jungle rubber was still covering 3 million ha for 70% of the rubber national production. In 2023, most of the jungle rubber has disappeared or is not anymore tapped, replaced by monoclonal plantation. However, in some countries, some local farmers continue to adopt or develop agroforestry practices, basically associating rubber with various number and types of plants and trees in both immature and mature period, in order to increase global productivity at plot level and to diversify sources of incomes to increase farms’ resilience. These countries are India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand and to a lesser extend Columbia and Brazil. In other countries, more recent rubber booms or lack of history and knowledge about agroforestry limited rubber development to monoculture with good success as well.