Widow
and mother of three, Nur Deni, 35, has boosted her cocoa crop
by forty per cent since participating in an Australian Red Cross
sponsored training program.
“Before the training, I didn't know how to maintain cocoa
trees or how to protect them from insects,” says Nur Deni.
“Now I've learned how to prune trees so that they are
more productive. I've already started to make compost and we
are hoping this will be good fertilizer for the trees.”
Nur Deni is one of 75 farmers from the Trans Meranti area of
Simeuleu Island participating in a 12-month cocoa training programme
that is being run by Australian Red Cross. Utilizing a community-based
training approach, small groups are receiving technical and
material support to re-establish their lives in a sustainable
manner. Community-based training packages developed as part
of the programme have also been designed so that they can be
used both by Indonesian Red Cross and other trainers in the
future.
To qualify for the program, farmers need to own and manage their
cocoa farm, and have a minimum of 100 cocoa trees that are already
productive.
Learning new skills
Fahmi is an Australian Red Cross livelihoods field officer who
works on the project. He has already seen 20 farmers from nearby
Ganting complete the 12-month programme and is now working with
the Trans Meranti farmers, watching them gain new skills and
knowledge each month.
“The Ganting cocoa farmers have been able to increase
the yield from their crop and now have much better livelihoods
because of this training,” he said. “Both groups
of farmers had very poor knowledge of productive farming techniques
when they started the training. Now they really know how to
take care of their cocoa trees. The farmers from Trans Meranti
are very motivated--they are already working well as a collective,
taking turns to clean each others land and tend each others’
crops.”
Sixty-one-year-old Hatta from Trans Meranti started the twice
per month training programme in 2006. “When I started,
I only knew how to plant,” he says. “Now I know
how to recognize a good seed and how to maintain cocoa.”
Five years ago, the Indonesian government moved Hatta and his
family to Simeuleu from West Aceh, because of the conflict in
Aceh. He was given two hectares of land for a house and for
agriculture. Hatta has 300 trees on his farm that was chosen
as the training site for this project. Hatta's main income source
comes from cocoa, supplemented in a small part by other fruits
and vegetables.
“The training will make my life better because we are
already getting better quality crops. After the training, the
yield will be bigger and the seed will be better. Fertilizers
will improve the quality of the crops. We have a plan to form
a group of farmers who can sell to the market,” he said.
Thirty women are participating in the training--well above the
numbers originally expected. Nur Deni and her colleagues laugh
when asked how the male and female participants compare.
“Women plan and men maintain,” says Nur Deni.
“We would like to get a collective together to not only
maintain our crops but also to sell the produce to the marketplace,”
concurs fellow student, 48-year-old Lastriana.
The training is also prompting the farmers to think about what
other crops might be suitable to grow on their land, so that
in the long term they and their families have a more secure
selection of crops to support them.
The cocoa training programme is just one component of the Australian
Red Cross livelihoods project that includes mangrove replanting
programmes, distributing school curriculum books, mud crab fisheries
and vegetable harvesting. The project is funded until the end
of 2007.
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Hatta
from Trans Meranti is half way through training on how
to improve the yield from his cocoa farm and says he has
already learned a lot. (p15404)
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Women
cocoa farmers from Trans Meranti make up a large percentage
of the participants in cocoa plantation training. (p15405)
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Women
cocoa farmers from Trans Meranti learn about the importance
of seed quality in the cocoa plantation training. (p15402)
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Seventy-five
farmers in three groups of 25 are attending the training
which takes place both in classrooms and in the field.
(p15403)
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