With Limited Support, Can Colol Coffee Farmers in Indonesia Increase Productivity?

The ascending pathway is flanked by coffee plants with towering branches.

In the armpits of its branches, clusters of red coffee beans wait to be picked during the long dry season in eastern Indonesia.

The pathway leads to the coffee land inherited from Aloysius Mensi Arsa’s parents, members of Indigenous communities in Colol Valley, East Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara.

Mensi (44), as he is known, dropped out of school after junior high school. Since then, he has been cultivating the farm.

Mensi admitted that he did not know the exact size of the farm covered in the Colol Agrotourism Area. “As far as I know, this farm was inherited from my parents.”

Decreased productivity

Agrotourism areas are tourist areas that utilize the potential of agriculture or plantations as a tourist attraction.

This area is part of the Ruteng Nature Tourism Park (TWA Ruteng), a conservation area covering an area of ​​32,245.6 hectares that stretches across two districts, Manggarai and East Manggarai.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS), in its report book East Lamba Leda District in Figures, 2022, stated that Colol’s topography takes the form of valleys at an altitude of 1,000 to 1,450 meters above sea level.

Residents—not only Mensi—have for generations called the areas under agroforestry a “coffee forest” rather than “coffee farm” in the valley of their birth.

They planted without following the ideal distance commonly practiced by planters in other coffee center areas in Indonesia.

When planting coffee seeds, Mensi’s parents did not make planting holes at a suitable distance.

“We just planted it. The important thing is to produce [beans],” said Mensi.

When mature, the coffee plants on the land form a lush canopy. At first glance, it looks like a biodiverse tropical rainforest canopy.

Mensi never counted how many coffee plants he had. What he always counted was the weight and income from his coffee harvest.

In the past seven years, he said “our harvests have drastically decreased.”

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This story was produced with support from Internews' Earth Journalism Network. It was first published in Floresa on December 22, 2023. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Banner image: Sun-drying coffee in front of a house in Colol, East Manggarai in Indonesia / Credit: Anastasia Ika.