First upload : 28 September 2017

BOYOLALI – Four villages on the slopes of Mount Merapi within Hazard Zone I participate in coffoee cultivation. Coffee is grown by agrofoestry system as part of the conservation of Merapi forest areas. The four vilages are two villages in the sub-district of Selo, one village in Cepogo sub-district, and one village in Dukun sub-district of Magelangdistrict.The first coffee planting was done on land areas in Stabelanhamlet of Tlogolelevillage of Selo district on Monday (5/6).

“Tlogolele village is only 3.5 km away from the peak of Mount Merapi and is one of the 10 villages involved in Merapi Sustainable Landscape Program facilitated by Business Watch Indonesia and Solidaridad,” said Theresia Widiyanti, the program coordinator of Busines Watch Indonesiaduring break of the event. Theresia also indicated that coffee agroforestry has been selected as an environmental conservation effort since it provides both economic and environmental benefit.

In addition to coffee agroforestry, Business Watch Indonesia has also collaborated with Solidaridad and Mount Merapi National Park Office to promote conservation of native vegetations among villagers in Merapi buffer zone areas. “Native vegations in the areas include berasan (Tarrenoidea wallichii), a native tree that is known to be resistant to volcanic ash. The areas include 400 hectares of land within the National Park and 300 hectares of land within the buffer zone.

Additional Income

The Head of Tlogolele village gave a heartfelt welcome to the program. He indicated that local communities have also benefited from the additional income from processing coffee beans without having to cut any trees. In this way, the program has contributed to maintain carbon reserves and ground water in the landscape.”Coffee cultivation in forest area will help local community to generate additional income.

“In addition, coffee cultivation can contribute to forest conservation and prevention of environmental damage,”. Coffee has long been grown by the local community but limited on their back-/frontyard garden or small garden close to their homes only. Although not cultivated properly, the gardens can yield relatively good harvest. “Each coffee tree can produce 10 kg of wet coffee cherries from each harvest. The farm gate price of wet coffee cherries is IDR 6,000– IDR 6,500per kilogram.”In the initial stage, one thousand coffee seedlings will be planted on 2 hectares of farm forest areas. The head of the village indicated that in the future, coffee will be grown on 30 hectares of farm forest areas to make Tlogolele to become coffee producing village.”Market is not an issue. We have establislhed a cooperation with local buyers from Temanggung to buy coffee beans harvested from this area.”

Printed Suara Merdeka daily

Issed on 6 June2017

Source: http://berita.suaramerdeka.com/smcetak/tanaman-kopi-dikembangkan-di-lereng-merapi/

Photo Credit: SM/Joko Murdowo