Creating a Sustainable Impact in Indonesia
By empowering women smallholders to adopt climate adaptive coffee varieties and farming techniques, Lestari and ICCRI/Indonesian Coffee & Cocoa Research Institute have not only improved livelihoods.
They’ve encouraged women’s active participation in enhancing their region's coffee-based economy and sustainability.
And the Dirjenbun /Ministry of Agriculture is on side too.
With funding from FIT, Lestari Inc. and ICCRI/Indonesian Coffee & Cocoa Research Institute collaborated on the project: Women Empowerment, Agricultural Innovation and Climate Change Adaptation/ /WE-AICCA.
In testing this innovative solution, they introduced newly developed drought-tolerant coffee varieties (adaptation to climate change). This involved establishing a demo plot, and training 65 Toraja and Enrekang coffee farmers and Agricultural Extension Officers/AEO, mostly women, on climate-smart coffee farming techniques.
While the project ended in early 2021, the farmers and Agricultural Extension Officers/AEO continue to expand the drought-tolerant coffee varieties, including maintenance, using their new project supported skill sets.
The Dirjenbun/Ministry of Agriculture is now replicating the project's introduced coffee varieties to other parts of Toraja.
The innovation team’s Demplot has become the Dirjenbun's central coffee nursery in Toraja, and the Dirjenbun has entrusted the women