Natural disaster put the squeeze on once popular Garut orange

By Kafil Yamin

SAMARANG, West Java (JP): Haji Ridwan died two years ago, but he is still talked about in his home village of Samarang, Garut, some 45 kilometers from Bandung.

He is remembered for his expertise in the cultivation of the Garut orange, once famous as an item to pick up for travelers to the area, along with dodol, a small cake made from glutinous rice and palm sugar.

Samarang and Wanaraja districts were the centers for cultivation of the orange, producing 22,500 tons of the fruit annually.

"You could discuss anything about Garut oranges with Haji Ridwan. He lived somewhere at the end of this road," said a woman at a small sidewalk stall.

But she warned that searching for the orange was a lost cause.

"You won't find it, it doesn't exist anymore. You will only find jeruk Siam," she said, referring to a hybrid orange that is commonly available in marketplaces.

Fortunately, she was wrong.

On Haji Ridwan's vast farm nestled in the green of the surrounding hills and among groves filled with the Siam variety, a precious legacy of 1,000 of the orange trees still survives.

"These are the only Garut oranges left in the area," said Haji Ridwan's wife, who now runs the farm with her four children.

Local farmers and officials trace the disappearance of the orange to a natural disaster in the 1980s and the advent of the hardier, more profitable Siam variety. Today, seeds of the orange trees have been brought back, but its reintroduction is proving slow going.

Izuddin, 50, a former orange grower who is now a vendor at the local traditional market, said: "The disaster occurred 20 years ago. A virus attacked all orange farms in this area."

He added that local orange growers became reluctant to grow the fruit because they feared financial losses. Once an orange farm was infected with the virus, the grower was advised to start over again.

"We had to get rid of all the orange trees which were attacked. We switched to other crops or paddy. Only after two years could we grow oranges again," Izuddin said.

Although the source of the virus is not known, Samarang district head Dadang Abdullah said changes were detected in the soil after the eruption of Mt. Galunggung in Tasikmalaya in 1982.

"Ash spewed from the volcano covered orange farms here, and after that the virus spread," he said, believing the ash changed the makeup of the soil.

A team of experts from the research center of the Ministry of Agriculture recommended that orange farms in Garut should halt planting oranges for at least 16 years.

"This was to ensure that the virus will not return" he said.

In an effort to preserve the species, seeds of the orange were stored in an agricultural laboratory in East Java. After 16 years, as the expert team recommended, the seeds were brought back to Garut in the late 1990s.

Careful

Dadang said orange growers needed to be careful in using the seeds because of changes in the soil.

"The virus is still present and so farmers need to be extra cautious about its threat. We have recommended they refine the seeds first before planting, about which our office has given some guidance."

But few, if any, of the former orange growers are interested in cultivating the Garut orange.

In the late 1980s, several farmers took the initiative to cross the Garut variety of orange with another variety. The result was pleasing; although the taste was not as good as the original Garut orange, the production was much higher and so the price was more competitive.

The hybrid, popularly known as jeruk Siam, can be harvested three times a year compared to once a year for the Garut orange.

That is the reason why Mrs. Ridwan grows more of the Siam than her small grove of Garut oranges. "My 1,000 Garut oranges are more of an effort to sustain the species. But for business, I rely more on Siam oranges, and I have four thousand trees," she said.

The Siam oranges are divided into three classes based on quality, with prices ranging from Rp 3,000 to Rp 5,000 per kilogram.

Garut oranges, meanwhile, sell for Rp 15,000 per kilogram.

"You'll get a windfall if you harvest Garut oranges. But that happens only once a year and if things go right," Mrs. Ridwan said.