Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/491371
34 STiR tea & coffee industry international ational Hwy. 3 rises gradually from the depths of the Bandung basin, once the bottom of prehistoric Lake Bandung that covered the area in Paleolithic times. The vehicle creeps through traffic jams and the grey smog- filled air of Indonesia's third largest city, then enter a zone of vivid green paddy fields, fruit orchards, and vegetable gardens. The villages of Kopo, Sore- ong, Ciwidey, and Gambung are stepping stones to Indonesia's plantations. Here, at 2,500 feet, in an area rich in volcanic soil, the Dutch established tea bushes in centuries past. Nugroho Koesnohadi, business development manager at KBP Chakra, evokes the name of a well-known Dutchman in these parts, Dr. R.E. Kerkhoven, who introduced Camellia Assamica from Sri Lanka to Gambung, West Java, in 1877. This variety eventually replaced much of the C. si- nensis throughout Indonesia. Two and a half hours from Bandung, we arrive at a meeting point on a dirt track in the middle of tea fields of brilliant green. We are waiting for Pak Wawan, senior supervisor of the Kelompok Tani Teh, Neglasari or Tea Farmers' Cooperative. There are 34 members farming 84 acres. In time 11 men of all sizes and shapes, young and old, arrive on mo- torcycles or on foot. They are a friendly, curious group, anxious to meet a reporter. I want to learn what makes the tea smallholder different from estate farmers; they respond open- ly, laugh self-consciously, demurely. We eat box lunches crammed with Sundanese specialties. The mood is festive. Afterwards, they are happy to tell the tea smallholder story. Better Together Tea smallholders represent the backbone of Indonesia's tea industry. They occupy 70% of the fertile tea lands and produce 50% of the country's tea. Indonesia's tea smallholders are the backbone of its tea industry, producing half of the country's tea. The most productive tea-growing region is Pengalengan, where we are standing. Cultivation is difficult on extremely small gardens of less than one hectare (2.5 acres). There are no irrigation systems. Plants are watered and weeded by hand. The tea is vulnerable to drought and weather/ climate anomalies. Although family labor is sometimes available, additional labor can be difficult to find. Much of the root stock in West Java is more than 50 years old and in need of replanting and in-filling. Uprooting bushes by machine is costly and cannot be self- financed. It takes several years for new plants to produce suitable tea leaves. Without restoration and replanting, production suffers greatly…and it is. Demand for tea is growing, but not due to lo- cal consumption. There are global macroeconomic trends beyond the ken of the tea farmer, beyond the district, beyond the nation's borders. It is dif- ficult to meet new quality standards, higher volume requirements, adopt best agricultural practices, fol- low restrictions on chemical use, and other require- ments smallholders have not previously had to face. Individual smallholders have little chance sur- viving alone. They must seek cooperation with neighbors, public-private partnerships, unions, and smallholder groups, scaling up, not only for the sake of solidarity, but to access information, knowledge, knowhow, credit, agricultural inputs, processing facilities, and markets which are located on the other side of the planet. The smallholder dairy farmers, for which the region is also famous, have also made the discovery. By Frank Miller Successful tea smallholder Pak Wawan, right, with growers Cahyn, far left, and Dodo. First in a series profiling successful smallholders growing tea and coffee around the globe. CIWIDEY, West Java N