Workers peel cashew nuts at Puna Liput Cashew Nut Cooperative in Ile Padung village, Lewolema district, East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, on Wednesday Aug. 2. Cashew nut harvests this season have fallen substantially because of the impacts of the climate change.
Yosef Teba, 45, sits next to cabbage that has been packed into several sacks, waiting for the traders who buy his crops. Like other farmers in Ngada, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), the farmer of Rakalaba village, Golewa subdistrict, has never distributed his crops from his fields. Traders come and buy the crops directly from the farms in remote villages.
"They are transported to Ruteng (Manggarai), Labuan Bajo (West Manggarai), to Maumere (Sikka)," said Yosef.
In addition to farming seasonal crops such as cabbage, Yosef also owns a coffee plantation. He inherited a 0.25-hectare coffee plantation on the outskirts of Rakalaba village. Yosef grows one of the most famous coffee varieties in the country, Bajawa coffee, which is one of the main crops on Flores island.
The 13,500-square-kilometer island, one of the three largest islands in East Nusa Tenggara, produces a variety of crops. The island has different microclimates and different kinds of soil. Coffee grown on Flores is not restricted to Bajawa coffee, which is widely grown in Ngada. There is also Manggarai coffee, which is grown in a district about a few hours’ drive from Bajawa. In addition to these two, there are several other coffee varieties such as Juria Colol from Manggarai and Yellow Caturra from Ngada.
Juria Colol is believed to the main Flores variety of coffee, because the first coffee was planted on the island in the area of Colol, which now includes East Manggarai regency. Because if its prime quality, the coffee has received international recognition, such as the Dutch flag awarded to local farmers in 1937by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. "Until today, the flag is stored as a heritage item," saidBony O Romas, manager of Kopi Mane Inspiration coffee shop in Manggarai.
Yellow Caturra is a rare variety. While the berries of other coffee varieties turn red when they are ripe, the Yellow Caturra berries turn yellow. Across Flores, no more than 1,000 Yellow Caturra trees remain. The coffee variety is grown only by families who come from South Sulawesi.
According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in NTT, Flores had 50,877 hectares of coffee plantations in 2015. They produced 17,193 tons of coffee, mainly Flores coffee, which is known as the best coffee on the island and the favorite among local coffee lovers. The coffee beans are sold to local coffee shops.
Other Produce
Although famous, coffee is not the main crop on Flores island. Cashews are also widely grown, but the main agricultural product is coconuts, which are shipped to other islands in its raw form or as copra.
There are about 77,361 hectares of cashew trees throughout Flores, which produced a total of 28,773 tons in 2015. The island also has 57,202 hectares of coconut plantations with a total production of 35,541 tons.
In addition to the three main crops, Flores also grows cacao and candlenuts. In 2015, there were 36,659 hectares of candlenut plantations with a production of 15,209 tons, and 40,794 hectares of cacao plantations with a total production of 16,399 tons. The local BPS office records the three produce as the main crops of Flores.
The different kinds of crops illustrate the diversity of Flores soil. Coffee and candlenuts grow mostly in arid and cool climes, which are found in the middle of the island. Cashews grow mostly in arid and hot climes, which are found in the central part of eastern Flores.
Coffee and candlenuts are the main crops in Manggarai Raya, Ngada, and Ende, while cashews are the pride of Sikka and East Flores. Ende is also listed as a cashew producer.
Flores’ cashew nuts are also sold on the international market. Cashew lovers in several European countries, the United States, Japan, Singapore, and Australia prefer the Flores cashew to African or Indian cashews.
Flores cashews can compete on the international market thanks to its status as an organic product. A number of farmers groups in East Flores and Ende have received European certification for organically produced cashews.
Hard soil
The effort to maintain such a diverse agriculture has not been easy for Flores. Like other islands in Indonesia, most farms were used to grow rice during the New Order. In order to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production, president Soeharto turned much of the land into rice fields. Local farmers received a massive amount of chemical fertilizer to boost productivity, and some lands on Flores were affected by the program.
However, others survived because the earth was too hard to be turned into paddy fields. Sikka, in East Flores, and parts of Ende were considered unfit for paddy fields and eventually become cashew plantations.
“In the past, the price of cashew was very low. It is high now,” said Gabriel Belawa Maran, a cashew farmer and trader in East Flores.
When he started his cashew farm in 1995, raw cashews were sold forRp 1,000 per kilogram to middlemen in East Flores. Today, the price of raw cashews in East Flores is Rp 24,000 per kg.
It takes time and hard work to obtain good results from the land in Flores.
"In Bajawa, only stone doesn’t grow.If the seeds of potatoes, beans, or cabbage are scattered on the ground, a few days later they will germinate. If they are maintained for a few months, they can be harvested. As long as you want to work, you can survive on Flores soil,"said Alfon Sina, 50, a Rakalaba farmer.
