Coconuts bring livelihood to Menoreh

By Ahmad Solikhan

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The arid and barren land of the Menoreh range of hills is not suitable for tilling. Only cassava, coffee, clove and second crop plants can grow on it, but the harvest of these plants is not very lucrative for farmers.

Only coconut trees can be relied on to grow abundantly and to provide for the farmers' daily needs, but it is also not very promising because there is an interval of three to four months between harvests. Moreover, a coconut tree yields only 10 to 15 coconuts per harvest.

Another less promising aspect is that the price of coconuts from the time of the New Order regime to the allegedly more democratic government often fluctuated, with prices tending to decline -- ranging from Rp 100 to Rp 300. In the meantime, the prices of the nine basic commodities have increased by more than 300 percent.

It is this problem that caused the farmers to change their strategy in order to have a harvest every day, so they do not have to wait until the harvest time of coconuts. They tap legen (sap) to obtain the basic material for gula merah (palm sugar).

Every morning until afternoon the legen in bumbung bambu (bamboo cylinders) is taken to be cooked. The product, palm sugar, slightly raises the income of the farmers, especially those living in the hills.

Such conditions can be found in the villages of Ngaseman, Hargorejo, Kokap, Kulonprogo where the majority of local farmers rely on the production of palm sugar.

Nearly every day, from morning until evening, Ibu Atmowijono, 68, sits in front of a stove, stirring the pan of legen to make it into palm sugar. She has been doing this work ever since her husband died 15 years ago.

For the tapping of legen this mother of three children gets the help of a close neighbor who is paid on a production-sharing basis. She produces 15 to 20 liters of legen every day from her 40 coconut trees. Production falls to three to five liters a day in a long dry season.

According to Atmowijono, grandmother of nine, the legen is poured into a pan or a wok after filtering. It is then cooked for three to four hours or until the legen thickens. It is then molded in a coconut shell. After two hours the palm sugar has hardened and is ready to use.

To obtain good quality palm sugar, it should not be dried directly under the sun. It is enough to expose it to air.

"Three kilograms of palm sugar can be obtained from 15 liters of legen," said Atmowijono.

Suparmi, 30, a widow with two children, started the same business after her husband died in a traffic accident.

Through 25 coconut trees that she owns, she reaps 11 liters of legen a day. In a production-sharing deal, she produces two kilograms of palm sugar from the legen. The price of palm sugar is only Rp 3,000 a kilogram.

"I share the income with a tapper on a 50-50 basis, so I get Rp 3,000," said Suparmi, a grade school graduate.

According to Suparmi, most of the farmers have difficulty in determining the price of palm sugar because of their debts with traders, who visit every five days. The price of palm sugar is determined by traders at the time of the debt transaction.

Although the market price of palm sugar is Rp 4,000 a kilogram, the farmers cannot set their price and just follow the price set by the traders since they have a previous agreement to supply palm sugar to settle their debts. On the other hand, if the price of palm sugar drops to Rp 1,500 a kilogram, it is the traders' risk.

However, the profit is always on the side of the traders, who can manipulate the price by pretending they do not need the palm sugar if there is ample supply. Then they can reduce the price to the lowest level possible.

Most of the farmers, however, are reluctant to sell their palm sugar directly to traders at the market because of the small quantity and because they have to go all the way up and down the hills to reach the market.

They acknowledge that their income from selling palm sugar does not equal the energy spent in the long production process, including searching for firewood. But they have to do it to survive.

"The present situation is fairly good compared to selling coconuts, which can only be harvested every four months," said Suparmi.

Apparently the farmers are not aware of the need to plant young coconut seeds, raising concerns that once the trees are gone, the farmers will lose their work and income.

Coconut trees can be tapped when they are 10 to 40 years old. So in a span of 30 years the farmers have sufficient time to grow new seeds.

"I know that the level of awareness of the farmers tapping legen, especially in the hills, is low in terms of the need for regreening," said Sugito, an official of the Kulonprogo Plantation Agency.

With other agencies, he gives information on fertilizer use and the right way to tap legen to the farmers to help increase their productivity and income.

Now the plantation agency is cultivating a variety of superior coconut seeds amounting to 8,000 hybrid young coconut trees at Nggarongan, Panjatan, Kulonprogo. It plans to distribute them in 12 subdistricts that require regreening.

Hybrid coconut trees are superior in that they yield 30 to 40 coconuts each in three months. Local coconut trees only produce around 10 to 15 coconuts each in four months. The quantity of legen extracted is far higher, up to three liters depending on the weather.

"If a coconut tree does not yield coconuts, it is better to tap it first. A year later, it will produce plenty of coconuts," said Sugito.