Coconuts bring livelihood to Menoreh

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.