Kendari transmigrants to join cashew nut estate project

JAKARTA (JP): PT Agromete Pranatani will soon develop cashew nut plantations in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, under a small- holder nucleus estate scheme, involving 350 transmigrant families a company executive said.

Agromete Director, M. Budiarjo, said the first group of transmigrants, consisting of 70 families, would be settled in the area next week.

He was quoted by Antara as saying the cashew nut plantations had been developed since 1993, on 2,000 hectares of land in Tinanggea district, 100 kilometers South of Kendari.

"Agromete has so far planted and harvested 1,300 hectares of the area," Budiarjo said.

He claimed the nucleus estate would be the first in the country to involve transmigrants, and the first project where resettlers would be provided with plantations ready for harvesting.

He said Agromete had allocated 1,000 hectares of the plantations for the transmigrants, and each family would receive about three hectares.

Each transmigrant family will be given 5,000 square meters of land, and a house with a 2,500 square meter garden, Budiarjo said.

He said the transmigrants had been specially trained to cultivate cashew nut trees, from seed selection to farming and harvesting. Agromete would buy the cashew nuts at "reasonable prices" and process it, he said.

Head of the provincial Plantation Office, Soewondo, said in the first stage of the project, 250 trees were planted per hectare. Over a five-year period, the trees would be reduced to reach an ideal number of 100 to 125 trees a hectare.

He said most local farmers were reluctant to down-size their plantations, resulting in productivity levels as low as 265 kilograms per hectare.

In comparison, he said, plantations that were well-managed could produce one ton of cashew nuts per hectare. In India, the yield could reach two tons a hectare, Soewondo said.

Southeast Sulawesi is now home to 129,500 hectares of cashew nut plantations, raised by 85,000 transmigrant families.

From this number, 2,350 hectares are old and no longer productive, and 32,350 hectares cannot yet be harvested. To date, only 94,800 hectares are harvestable. (pwn)