Selected Speaker for IDF 2019: Dimas Fauzi Promotes Expansion of Access to Market Information for Coffee Farmers of Pagar Alam Social Forestry

November 14, 2019

Dimas Fauzi

 

The far distance and limited access of farmers as coffee producers to their buyers in the market become the primary challenges for coffee farmers from the Indigenous People of Tebat Benawa and members of Community Forest (HKm) of Semidang jaya in Pagar Alam, South Sumatera. A selected speaker for the Indonesia Development Forum (IDF) 2019, Dimas Fauzi, explains that this condition has limited market information among farmers, in a presentation called “Transforming Employment in Agriculture by Enabling Social Forestry Coffee Market.”

 

“There need to be efforts to improve access to market and other information, both to farmers and buyers, including post-harvest processing that has yet to be done by farmers,” said Dimas Fauzi, who is Research Analyst for World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia.

 

Dimas has carried out various research projects on community-based forest management and energy transition issues in Indonesia. Dimas graduated from the International Relations Major at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and is now a Magister of Public Policy student at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In the farmer research in Pagar Alam, Dimas collaborated with other WRI researchers, Umi Purnamasari and Satrio Adi Wicaksono.

 

Long Supply Chain                          

 

In his presentation on IDF 2019, Dimas explained that within the Community Forest (HKm) of Semidang Jaya in South Sumatera, coffee farmers have access to three levels of middlemen, starting from the village to City of Pagar Alam. In this process, the social relations factor sometimes is critical, especially in Tebat Benawa.

 

The Community Forest here is defined as a landscape of forest areas that can be managed by a group or groups of local communities in a sustainable manner. This community forest is a part of the Social Forestry program, namely a sustainable forest management system within the state forest or rights/indigenous forest, carried out by the local people to improve their welfare, environmental balance, and social and cultural dynamics.

 

“In a more homogenous society context, the Indigenous People of Tebat Benawa, the coffee supply chain is influenced by social relationships. Farmers tend to sell their harvest to middlemen with familial ties,” he continued.

 

While for a more heterogeneous society, including members of the Community Forest of Semidang Jaya, the trade pattern is purely determined by profit-loss calculation. Farmers compare prices in several middlemen.

 

This long coffee supply chain exists due to limited access and uneven market information. Looking at the value chain, coffee prices will go up as middlemen get closer to the leading buyer. As a result, farmers on the most bottom supply chain will receive the lowest price.

 

“But we need to underline that we cannot negate the role of middlemen in the coffee value chain because they still play a critical role in the coffee marketing process. Moreover, several farmers and middlemen also have inseparable social relationships,” emphasised Dimas.

 

Limited information has caused a discrepancy of coffee quality between buyers’ requests, such as roastery and companies, with coffee produced by farmers.

 

“Large scale buyers usually need coffee supply in huge volumes and good quality, where roastery will usually buy coffee with better quality compared to companies that make coffee an ingredient for their products,” added Dimas.

 

Another finding is the urgent financial need. Farmers usually rely on their income from selling coffee to meet their daily and large needs, such as child education, health, and so on. This economic pressure often hinders the post-harvest process because farmers want to sell them faster. 

 

Path to Empowerment for Coffee Farmers in Pagar Alam

Efforts to improve access to market information can be done by promoting coffee products from Pagar Alam to buyers by utilising existing networks. For example, through the Industrial Chambers of Commerce (KADIN), coffee exporter unions, and so forth.

 

“An e-commerce approach can also be carried out so that farmers can independently sell coffee directly to consumers. However, farmers must increase their production quality first,” continued Dimas.

 

Improving access to information provides opportunities for farmers to receive an incentive for increasing production quantity and quality. Buyers can add coffee supplying network to theirs. Besides market information, building farmers’ capacity needs to be done, especially in maintaining pre-harvest coffee plantation and post-harvest processing.

 

“In Pagar Alam, the government is actively implementing the coffee plantation revitalisation program by distributing cuttings (stek) seeds, which can increase coffee yield up to threefold. This effort needs to be supported and expanded to coffee plantations located in Social Forestry areas,” explained Dimas.

 

Besides increasing production volume, Dimas thinks that post-harvest processing is needed, such as picking red coffee fruits, drying with cover, fermentation, and so on. This will increase the quality of coffee produced by farmers. Similarly crucial in the series of empowering coffee farmers in Pagar Alam is strengthening farmers’ institutional capacity, for example by establishing a cooperative so that farmers can collect coffee with the quantity and quality demanded by the market.

 

Collaboration with Social Forestry Stakeholders


This empowerment effort involves a number of parties. First, the government plays a part in implementing farmer capacity building programs to improve the productivity of coffee and post-harvest processing. The government can also help link farmers with buyers.

 

“But, in implementing its programs, the government must embrace both independent coffee farmers and those who plant coffee within the Social Forestry area, so no farmers are left unreached,” he added.

 

Second, farmer groups. Farmers also need to establish and strengthen farmer group institutions that can organise integrated marketing. Strong groups will help farmers in collecting the harvested coffee. Even further, communal post-harvest processing can attract a major buyer. Third, CSOs. Support from CSOs/NGOs is still required, especially in helping to build farmers’ capacity and to advocate to the government, as well as to reach buyers.

 

Fourth, both large and small buyers. “As consumers, we can begin to pay attention to the origin of the coffee we consume, and whether it has been processed based on sustainability principles, for example,” said Dimas.

 

In addition, large buyers such as roastery and companies can contribute by buying directly from farmers through farmer groups and fostering them to treat their plantation and conduct post-harvest processing. This concept has been done by several roastery and companies that have come directly to help farmers increase the quantity and quality of their coffee.

 

Dimas’ presentation was conveyed in the Developing Globally Competitive Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises session at the Indonesia Development Forum (IDF) 2019 on July 23. Dimas, along with Umi, and Satriodari from WRI team, focused on Subtheme 5: Developing Globally Competitive Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. This subtheme is a part of the main theme of IDF 2019: Mission Possible: Seizing the Opportunities for Future Work to Drive Inclusive Growth. 

 


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