Overview
Natural rubber, tapped from the Para rubber tree, is grown mainly in Edo and Delta states, where the plantations and research stations of the south-south forest belt made it a significant export crop for much of the twentieth century.
Where it's found
History of exploitation
Wild rubber was collected and exported from southern Nigeria in the late nineteenth century, sometimes destructively. Planted Para rubber was introduced in the early twentieth century under colonial rule, and estates and smallholdings spread through the Benin area, supported from the mid-century by a rubber research station at Iyanomo near Benin City. Processing factories were built to make sheet and crumb rubber for export and for domestic tyre manufacture.
Economic role
Rubber was one of Nigeria's notable agricultural exports before and after independence, and it supplied domestic tyre and rubber goods factories. Planting and processing both declined in the later twentieth century as trees aged and industry contracted. No current figures are given here.
Environmental and social impact
Rubber planting replaced natural forest in parts of Edo and Delta states, and ageing plantations with low yields have left farmers with the cost of replanting. Processing factories generate effluent and odour where it is untreated, and tapping is poorly paid manual work.