Restive Youths Contribute to Rural Transformation
In 2007, at the age of 34, Patola was riled on seeing that middlemen (tengkulak) were taking advantage of coffee farmers in Enrekang regency, South Sulawesi. Similarly disquieted youths have triggered change in other regions.
Patola decided to do something about the situation. He quit his well-paid job at a seed company and returned to his village to establish a coffee farmers’ cooperative.
“I just wanted to see Enrekang coffee, which used to be renowned and helped local communities prosper, to be passed down to future generations,” Patola, now 46, said on Monday (26/8/2019).
The bachelor of agriculture established the Benteng Alla Cooperative, taking its name from a village in Baroko regency. Benteng Alla (Fort Alla0 is also the name of a fortress that dates back to the Enrekang Kingdom and was the kingdom’s last bastion against the colonial Dutch forces.
Once it was established, the Benteng Alla Cooperative began recruiting local farmers and trained them in product marketing with an aim to cut the supply chain that had been suffocating local farmers for decades.
Much time, energy and materials were devoted on realizing the dream. The cooperative also faced retaliatory measures from middlemen, which drained the cooperative’s funds and Patola’s own wallet.
After six years of “battle”, the cooperative began to gain the trust and support of local farmers through buying coffee beans directly from farmers at prices higher than what the middlemen offered.
In 2010, the cooperative collaborated with a global coffee supplier. “Last year, we supplied 20 tons of coffee for export. This year, we aim to export 50 tons,” said Patola.
The cooperative currently has 2,792 partner farmers and a monthly turnover of Rp 100 million (US$7,048.71). They also have partners in other coffee-producing districts, like Bungin, Masalle, Buntu Batu and Baraka.
Aside from coffee, the cooperative also developed a goat farm, raising 43 goats at coffee plantations to increase farmers’ incomes. The goats’ manure is also used as fertilizer.
A similar youth initiative was also implemented in Bumi Saniari hamlet of Bintuni Bay regency, West Papua, where local farms thrived on producing water spinach, corn, chili peppers and tomatoes.
Over the last year, the Yanuariu Poor, which groups together local Papuans, and Catholic Youth community members have turned a plot of clay soil into a plantation. To amend the soil, they searched for maleo nesting grounds, taking humus from the land to combine with cow and chicken dung and mixing it in the clay soil.
The vegetable plants sprouted, and homemade compost was added. Banana stems and fish innards were mixed and stored in sealed containers for two weeks. The method was learned from local people who grew their own vegetables.
During last week’s harvest, one water spinach farm produced 40 bunches of water spinach worth Rp 200,000. Satisfied with the results, local residents are now queueing to be trained. “The water spinach is delicious. It is organic, so it tastes different,” said Christina Sandry, 38, who runs a food stall on Jl. Bintuni-Manokwari and buys her vegetables from the community.
Last year, local youths initiated the cultivation of secondary crops, which now involves eight villages.
Pastor P. Yohanes Damasenus Satu SVD of St. Yohanes Parish in Bintuni, who trains the youth, said that the local people had been spoiled by the region’s natural wealth and government aid, which had resulted in a lack of initiatives. The people were often unable to save money, even for buying their own vegetables.
Bintuni Bay community empowerment expert staff Yoseph Dian said that the regency administration had taken note of the initiative’s progress. “The eight villages save around Rp 20 million in monthly spending on buying vegetables,” he said, adding that the government was ready to help expand the initiative.
Gadget-less Village
The Kampung Lali Gadget (gadget-less kampung; KLG) initiative was launched last year in Pagerngumbuk village, around 5 kilometers from downtown Sidoarjo, East Java. “We are not anti-gadget,” said Achmad Irfandi, 26, who started the initiative.
Instead, KLG encourages children to take a break from digital devices and instead socialize, engage in sports and other fun activities that stimulate learning. Each outdoor activity session lasts a minimum of six hours, and it held the seventh session In late September 2018.
Starting in May 2018, each session gathered around 200 children from several villages. Traditional games, a reading space, a children’s gamelan set and a small climbing wall were set up in the rear yard of the backyard of Irfandi’s family home. Some of the equipment were private donations. Children can read, play sports, sing, play outdoors and listen to stories there. Local youths organize the activities and lead the children in the activities.
The Kampung Layak Gadget (proper gadget use kampung) initiative was launched together with Kampung Lali Gadget to encourage the proper and productive use of gadgets and apps.
“We are setting up the Indonesian KLG Foundation,” said Irfandi, who is working on his master’s thesis at Surabaya State University.
The initiative would be better organized under the formal administrative structure of a foundation. A state-owned enterprise has already expressed its interest in joining the foundation. (REN/ENG/FRN/BRO)