Ngrancah Coffee, a Reminder of Home

Coffee plantations on the slopes of Mount Kelir, Magelang regency, are coming back to life after being neglected for so long.

Kompas/Karina Isna Irawan

Prosperous Independent Joint Business Group member Padang Wuyanto, who is also a coffee farmer, grinds coffee beans in Ngrancah village, Magelang, Central Java, on Nov. 4. Coffee bean production in the village reached 85.32 tons per year on 71.1 hectares of land. The robusta species of the Ngrancah coffee is planted at a height of 600 to 700 meters above sea level.

On the northern tip of Magelang regency in Central Java, coffee plantations on the slopes of Mount Kelir are coming back to life after being neglected for so long. Rising demand in the coffee market has pulled many of the region’s migrating youth back home to manage their inherited plantations. Here in Ngrancah, Magelang, coffee is a reason to always come back home.

Three years ago, Sumarwoto, 27, quit his job selling household products in Pekanbaru, Riau. He went home to Ngrancah village in Grabag district, Magelang, to develop its long-neglected coffee production.

“I have no more reason to stay away. Here, I get more money and I can be closer to my family,” Sumarwoto said on Nov. 4.

He said he wished to return home after hearing his friends’ and neighbors’ success stories from coffee farming. His childhood friends often uploaded pictures of their coffee production on social media. Once Sumarwoto got back home, he joined the Mandiri Sejahtera joint business group (KUBE) to learn about coffee farming and processing.

Sumarwoto can earn between Rp 3 million (US$222) and RP 3.5 million a month from his coffee business, higher than the Rp 2.5 million a month he earned as a sales agent in Pekanbaru. Apart from living closer with his family, he said he was proud to take part in developing his village’s economy.

In Ngrancah, the coffee business attracts the local youth, including Padang Wuyanto, 22. After working for 1.5 years in a sticker printing business, he decided to manage a 2.5-hectare coffee plantation. Apart from learning how to grow coffee, Padang also learned about post-harvest coffee processing.

“I want to promote Ngrancah coffee and make it equal to coffee from other regions, such as Semarang, Temanggung and Banjarnegara regencies,” said the fourth-generation coffee farmer.

The youth is the main driver of the coffee resurgence in Ngrancah. Of the 40 or so members of Mandiri Sejahtera KUBE, almost half are younger than 30 years old. Migrating youth often come home during the coffee harvest season. They take part in harvesting the plantations and selling the beans.

Attractive

Ngrancah village has 71.1 has of coffee plantations with around 177,750 trees. On average, the village produces 85.32 tons of coffee a year. Such potential is put to good use these days.

KUBE Mandiri Sejahtera chief Hari Susanto said the local coffee processing industry had led to fewer youth wishing to move away from the village. Since 2010, only 20 percent of locals migrated from the village annually, down from the previous figure of between 40 percent and 50 percent per year. Ngrancah village has 1,000 residents.

In the past three years, coffee farming and processing has been gaining traction among local youths due to major shifts in agriculture. “Farming is no longer exclusively about working with hoes and sickles. The youth can use social media channels for marketing after harvest. This is a major point of interest,” Heri said.

KUBE Mandiri Sejahtera buys coffee beans from farmers at Rp 25,000 to Rp 27,000 per kilogram. Red coffee bean is priced between Rp 30,000 and Rp 35,000 per kg and sorted beans at Rp 40,000 per kg. Robusta beans farmed in fields located between 600 meters and 700 m above sea level are the mainstay in the village’s coffee production. The village applies organic coffee farming methods.

Green beans are priced between Rp 30,000 and Rp 80,000 per kg, depending on quality. Ground coffee is sold between Rp 120,000 and Rp 150,000 per kg. Buyers can either come directly to the village or buy the coffee online at www.kopi-ngrancah.com.

Thus far, Ngrancah coffee is marketed to Semarang, Yogyakarta, Wonosobo, Medan and a few regions in Kalimantan. Apart from selling coffee, KUBE Mandiri Sejahtera also initiated coffee education tours, where visitors can travel around coffee farms and learn about taking care of coffee seeds, managing farms and post-harvest processing.

Much like coffee production in Jambu district, Semaragn regency, also located on the slope of Mt Kelir, Ngrancah village coffee also has a java mocha aroma. To support the village’s economy, local youths plan to establish a café where guests can sip local coffee and enjoy local snacks such as ampyang (sweets made of palm sugar and nuts) and taro crackers.

Origins

Local elder Suratno, 58, said all coffee trees in Ngrancah originated from a Dutch-era plantation. Proof of this can be found in an old photograph at the digital image library of Leiden University’s Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies in the Netherlands. The old photograph shows a complex of buildings surrounded by coffee farms and a number of sun-drying spots.

The photograph has a caption that says Administrateurswoning op koffieonderneming Ngrantjak tussen Ambarawa en Magelang (The house of the coffee company administrator in Ngrantjak between Ambarawa and Magelang).

According to Heri, the photograph was taken at the peak of Wiropati Hill, which still serves as one of the village’s coffee production centers today. However, all the buildings in the photograph no longer exist today.

Suratno said during the colonial era, growing coffee was more difficult than it is today. The sweet aroma and red color of coffee beans attracted many to growing coffee. Many people working at the local coffee factory, including Suratno’s father, tried to obtain coffee beans for growing. They often swallowed red coffee beans whole.

“People did this because, if they were found [to be taking the beans], they would be punished with unpaid hard labor,” Suratno said.

Dutch sociologist Jan Breman wrote in his 2010 book Koloniaal Profijt Van Onvrije Arbeid: Het Preanger Stelsel Van Gedwongen Koffieteelt Op Java (Colonial Profit of Hard Labor: The Priangan System of Coffee Hard Labor in Java), translated into Indonesian by Christina Suprihatin in 2014, that mandatory coffee farming increased under the Daendels administration. The number of coffee trees in Java increased by 45 million, from 26,956,467 in 1808 to 72,669,860 three years later. Coffee farming was developed in Priangan (West Java), Central Java and East Java to fund economic and infrastructure development.

A small portion of the coffee farms left over by the Dutch is now managed by Padang Wuryanto’s family. This is proven by the presence of coffee trees 3 to 4 m high.

Up to the 1990s, a majority of coffee trees left over by the Dutch had disappeared and was transplanted by corn or yam trees. Locals’ awareness in coffee farming reemerged during the reforestation programs on the landslide-prone hills. With coffee, locals can enjoy economic growth and protect the environment at the same time.