Sharing Experiences of Coffee Farmer from Patteneteang Villagge at The 3rd Asia Pacific Rainforest Forum

Yogyakarta, April 24th, 2018. Farmer representative and member of the Akar Tani Cooperative from Bantaeng, South Sulawesi Province, Mr. Ramli, today became one of the speakers at the 3rd Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit (APRS) in Yogyakarta, at the 8th session on the forum with the theme ‘implementation of Community Forestry’. Together with 2 other speakers who were also community forestry entrepreneurs, Mr. Ramli shared his experiences as a coffee farmer in Patteneteang Village and his activities at the Akar Tani Cooperative.

The coffee produced from Patteneteang Village which began to be known is Daulu Organic Coffee which is also produced from the Village Forest agroforestry block in the vicinity. Coffee farming is currently the main livelihood of the surrounding community. However, there are still many obstacles faced by the farmer, which are from price volatility, dependence on middlemen, and poor quality coffee. However, Mr. Ramli also mentioned his efforts with friends and colleagues from the Akar Tani Cooperative to overcome this problem. With the assistance of the Regional Government, local NGO facilitator which is Balang Institute, and also RECOFTC, Mr. Ramli hopes that the Akar Tani cooperative can be one of the solutions to the challenges in his village and surrounding areas.

Akar Tani Cooperative which was established in 2016 accommodates coffee from the community including coffee obtained from the Patteneteang Village Forest. Together with Mr. Ramli in the 3rd APRS, there was also the Director of the Akar Tani Cooperative, Mr. Irzad Syafar, who also introduced Bantaeng's specialty coffee product, Kopi Daulu, to the participants at the event. 

Through an international forum attended by various parties, Mr. Ramli wanted to convey that the coffee he produced with the farmers in his village could remind people of the importance of the forests, as well as the welfare of the surrounding communities. "I want people to know, if they drink Daulu Coffee, they also support our village and its community," he said.

"I want people to know, if they drink Daulu Coffee, they also support our village and its community,"