Agrosilvopasture Coffee Plantation: Bukit Kumbang Farmers Community's Solution to Restore Land

The Bukit Kumbang Farmers Community is domiciled in Tanjung Aur Village, Bengkulu. To be precise, since 1971 they have been accustomed to processing coffee traditionally. In each season, the people of Tanjung Aur Village are able to process up to 200 tons of coffee. Through funding from the Nusantara Fund, the Bukit Kumbang Farmers Community has attempted to integrate their coffee plants with livestock farming on forest land (agrosilvopasture). With the hope that the coffee plantation practices they have been doing for a long time will be able to contribute to the preservation of nature, including for the restoration of land and forests in the Watershed Area (DAS).

Although there were some hiccups at the beginning of the program, the Bukit Kumbang Farmers Community has tried their best to realize a sustainable coffee plantation. They planted on approximately 4 hectares of land. The land was a gift from one of their members to realize this shared dream.

There are several programs that are implemented to realize coffee plantations with the agrosilvopasture method. First, they build a green house so that coffee drying can be more optimal compared to the old method which only depends on sunny weather. Second, they also build a nursery house that allows for the development of local coffee seeds. Third, build a water reservoir. The existence of a water reservoir is intended to collect rainwater. So rainwater is not directly absorbed by the soil, but enters the water reservoir for them to use for agriculture and other needs. Fourth, livestock. Initially, the Bukit Kumbang Farmer Community wanted to have a goat farm, but they saw that goats were not suitable for the agrosilvopasture farming that they were developing. The choice of livestock fell on chickens which they considered useful. The twenty parent chickens will be routinely released in the morning to look for food in the coffee plantation, then they will put them back in the cage at night. The chickens will help with pest management, such as caterpillars, grasshoppers, and ladybugs, and also help loosen and fertilize the soil when scratching the soil. Lastly, the Bukit Kumbang Farmers Community also utilized Nusantara Fund funding to provide facilities and infrastructure that support their good practices.

Coffee plantation efforts through the agrosilvopasture method developed by the Bukit Kumbang Farmers Community not only have an impact on the collective welfare of the community. But also contribute results to conservation and land restoration efforts. With the existence of the Bukit Kumbang Farmers Community coffee plantation, the results that can be felt in land and forest restoration have an impact on at least 135 thousand residents living in Kaur Regency, Bengkulu.