CULTIVATING AND PROCESSING COFFEE (PART 2)
“If you wanted to choose your life partner, as just like ancient Javanese saying, consider bobot, bibit, dan bebet, this is also happens if you wanted to choose the best coffee seed” said Dwi Nugroho, SP (32) as first spokesperson on the opening ceremony of Cultivating dan Processing Coffee event. This event by Asosiasi Kopi Spesial Indonesia (Indonesian Special Coffee Association) (AKSI) have hundreds participants from various cities in Indonesia , fromJanuary 31st to February 4th in Pusat Penelitian Kopi dan Kakao (Puslit Koka), Jember, Jawa Timur.
Of course I am not goin to write about all the training materials, but since the beginning of the course I can summarize that this coffee farming is difficult to handle.According to Dwi, both farmers and instructors has to be able to choose all kinds of seeds. Genetical information should be able to track, or in other words we can tell “who is the parents” (legitim dan prop legitim) , so we can multiply it through colonial system.we should avoid seeds with no definite origins due to maintain it “clan” in order to ensure the quality and consistency of the product.
If the seeds is clear for its quality and origin, next process is multiplying this seeds through method that being brought by Ir. Pudji Rahardjo, SU who has been develop good quality seeds since the 90’s and he also explains advantages of those seeds also pest and how to cope with it. In order to produce a new breed of seeds took a very long effort, and takes about 10 to 15 years to get a national certification. Various research and testing has to be conducted at laboratory before the new breed of seeds can be introduce to the coffee farmers.
Can we sterilized male insects that usually nest on the coffee seed so they cannot reproduce? It is one of my question when speakers talks about pest on coffee seeds. Surely this can be done, but its difficult to gather all the male so we can “vasectomized”them. Kinds of pest is a very interesting topic being brought by Ir. Sri Sukamto Sugiarto, a master on Fitopatologi from Universitas Gajah Mada who have done research on plant disases such as fungus, bacteria, virus, nematodes, and how to control it.
Other interesting subject is the Introducing Tools and Coffee Machinery that was brought by Edy Suharyanto, STP, MP. Various tool and machine that have been produce by Puslit Koka with full specification and prices. There is always interesting cases such asm how to use para-para to dry the coffee bans so it cannot contaminated with dirt rather than drying it on soil or cement floor. Some of the farmers still use floor cement, this because, according to Yustarmizi Candra, one of the instructor from Aceh, is because there is no difference from the buyer price even though this tool is cheap. Edy said, various technologies cannot always applicable, but one of the mission in farming technologies is to provide simplicity for the farmers and to increases quality and quantity of the resulting product.
Besides practice in coffee processing, the participants also been brought to see an experimental field in Andungsari, Kabupaten Bondowoso, which took about 1.5 hour trip from Jember. This also marks the end of the event which held by AKSI with collaboration with Puslit Koka in Jember.
