Female Coffee Farmers in Batu Ampar Village Expand Climate-Resilient Coffee Production in Bengkulu

Coffee produced in Rejang Lebong and Kepahiang is among Indonesia's top coffees. The 58-member Coalition of Women Coffee Farmers (Koppi Sakti) in Batu Ampar Village has long been involved in promoting organic and climate-resilient coffee farming, supported by LIVE Bengkulu and WALHI Bengkulu. They have conducted a study on the impact of climate change on coffee farming in Rejang Lebong, which can reduce the quantity and quality of the harvest and increase the costs of plantation maintenance. Other impacts on female coffee farmers include: increased burdens in maintaining the plantation, harvesting, and processing the harvest, increased burdens in managing household finances, increased vulnerability to domestic violence, increased potential for stress and depression, and resulting in the tradition of change of day in caring for the garden and harvesting coffee, encouraging coffee, and drumming coffee is vulnerable to extinction. Tradition encouraging Coffee, for example, is a local wisdom that sees that the elderly who pick up fallen coffee beans and also animals (such as squirrels) called kecip who eat coffee beans are an opportunity for them to share food. Only red and ripe coffee beans, with thick flesh, abundant and sweet mucus, single fruit, and easily separated from the stalk are attractive to animals, so when the beans are dropped by animals, they will pick them up and dry them far from livestock pens and highways to ensure the coffee beans undergo a clean, natural process and are of high value. They need to promote more in the form of joint ventures to get a higher selling price and also increase the production and quality of organic red-picked coffee beans.

They believe that female coffee farmers must play a role in revitalizing various local wisdoms and practices in building climate-resilient coffee plantations. This can be achieved by implementing polyculture (planting a variety of crops, such as fruit trees, vegetables, and spices), using manual weed control, using organic waste (grass, leaves, and twigs from coffee and other trees) as organic mulch and fertilizer, utilizing botanical pesticides, and constructing ventilation holes (mini rorak) and rainwater catchments.

This program initiative received support from Dana Nusantara to strengthen the capacity of female coffee farmers in 3 other villages besides Batu Ampar Village, namely in Tebat Tenong Luar, Mojorejo, and Pungguk Meranti, to build climate-resilient coffee plantations, pioneer business centers to sell semang kecip and petik merah coffee (packaged and brewed) and various foods (fresh and processed), and pioneer educational centers on the processing of semang kecip and petik merah coffee, and various local wisdom/practices that are in line with climate change adaptation and mitigation actions in climate-resilient coffee plantations.

The program has had a significant impact on the sustainability of the joint coffee business from the four villages that were successfully pioneered. The most obvious is the additional funding support from other international institutions to run this initiative for 60 women. Also organizationally, this program has succeeded in restructuring the women's coffee farmer group to be able to manage a joint business with a membership of 196 people. The program has had an impact on at least 541 coffee farmers in Kepahiang and Rejang Lebong who have started to switch to organic fertilizers on a total of 231,55 hectares of land. This program has succeeded in increasing the capacity of women's coffee farmer groups in three villages to make organic mulch, organic fertilizer, EM4 and make organic pesticides, and plant polycultures in the form of ginger, eggplant, and simultaneously prepare the nursery of 840 chili seedlings and 4 kilograms of ginger seedlings planted in coffee gardens in four villages, also to carry out the red-picked coffee processing techniques naturally, full wash, semi-wash, honey, create brands, and produce red-picked ground coffee together, and support from the village and district governments for the sustainability and promotion of organic joint business products. Their red-picked coffee production is increasingly high-quality from their climate-resilient coffee plantations, with an estimated increase in production of almost double per hectare because it is healthier without chemical fertilizers, is specially produced and not mixed with random coffee as before, is better packaged, and also saves millions of rupiah in fertilizer production costs.

"Not a few coffee farmers are starting to be interested in switching to organic fertilizers after learning that organic fertilizers can be made on coffee plantations, and that they are relatively easy and inexpensive to make," said Mercy Fitry Yana, Head of Koppi Sakti, Tebat Tenong Luar Village.

With various challenges, especially in market price fluctuations, Koppi Sakti in 4 villages has succeeded in building a climate-resilient coffee business and education center by revitalizing their own local practices and wisdom in Bengkulu.

"Until now, we, as individuals, have only sold raw coffee beans. Now, we're starting a joint venture, selling red-picked coffee grounds from the Climate-Resilient Coffee Plantation. This is a new hope for us," said Nurlela Wati, Chairperson of Koppi Sakti, Tebat Tenong Luar Village.

Ema Susana, Chairwoman of Koppi Sakti in Pungguk Meranti Village, echoed this sentiment. She hopes that the collaborative venture pioneered by Koppi Sakti, based on the Climate-Resilient Coffee Plantation, can serve as motivation. The collaborative efforts of women coffee farmers to build Climate-Resilient Coffee Plantations also increase opportunities for improved well-being.