Applying agroforestry under the guidance of pak Tony
​He also helped us tremendously in tackling the model garden, such as making our very first load of compost for our compost house and adapting the design of the model garden. There were a number of trees that were not in the right place so they couldn't provide optimal shade. Afterwards it turned out that we could plant more crops together on one piece of land. Well, that's a good thing! We also worked on setting up a good and clear planting system. When the design of the model garden was finished, under the guidance of pak Tony, we could immediately start putting the planting system into practice by placing rows of plants that will serve as an example for the entire garden. We planted pineapple, sweet potato, black pepper and ginger. These crops serve as good ground cover. After a few days you could already recognize a clear structure. 
Step by step, the implementation of agroforestry is starting to become more visible! For example, every 12 metres there is now a coconut palm next to the cocoa trees. After a while, the large leaves of the coconut palm will grow and transform into elegant fans. This way, the palm provides shade to the trees growing underneath. Furthermore, every 7 metres there are avocado, durian, kelor and petai cuttings. The correct placement of mulch trees was also determined. According to pak Tony, there were large shadow trees that were out of control. In other words: these trees had become too big so it was almost impossible to prune them. Pak Tony shared his pruning knowledge with us and told us that the cocoa trees could be pruned a lot more, because they only need 30% shade. Then we pruned these trees all the way back. The pruning makes the cocoa trees a lot more open and 'cleaner' so that more food and energy goes to the fruit. This reduces the chance of diseases and the tree will provide the right amount of shade to its fellow crops. Now we know how a good pruning system can be applied in the right way! After the departure of pak Tony, we continued the action: collecting coconut husks. A big advantage is that the husks last a long time.

In December, Rudy spent a month at the BumiLangit Institute in Jogjakarta where he learned about permaculture. With permaculture you can design a food garden that is beautiful and useful for yourself but also for the many creatures we share this earth with. Permaculture is about a holistic world view with the awareness that we are part of the whole earth’s ecosystem and everything we do has an effect on the whole.

Rudy has learned a lot about various crops but also gained ideas on how to involve the local population in the project and how to make young people enthusiastic to work in agriculture. In short, very valuable knowledge and input that can certainly be useful for the La Galigo project. And Rudy will share it with you in this blog!

The daily operations
We have been redesigning the model garden for a couple of months now. We literally see everything flourish and the collaboration with people and local organizations is growing.
Usually I start the day with an inventory tour through the garden to keep track of the growth of the plants. The advantage of doing an observation round is that you become more and more aware of what crops are available. This way you can also better estimate which crops can still be implemented according to the agroforestry rules! Sometimes I start an observation round while jogging. Unfortunately, there is a lot of dirt on the streets. I have decided to go “plogging”: jogging and collecting litter on the streets. Doing this, you keep yourself healthy and give the surroundings a helping hand at the same time! Besides cleaning up litter, the maintenance of the garden and making cuttings is one of my biggest activities. Taking care of this requires a lot of attention. I also keep in touch with the locals, guests and do the administration.
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Together with Pak Amir and Yusri, we focus on garden maintenance and are working on the next steps for the model garden. We are doing a lot of research on which plant species we can add and where we can find them. This is quite a job, since half of our plant species have to come from Java, because unfortunately a large part is not (organically) grown or planted. That means that the crops need to be sent to us... Perhaps this will create an opportunity to start a small nursery garden with special plants and trees that can then be used in other agroforestry projects and cocoa plantations. We have plenty of space!

At the moment, the most important thing is that the soil layer is constructed further and the plants are bought, so that we can start planting in February. We are still looking for a good cover crop. These are plants that are planted to cover the ground and not to be harvested. They manage soil erosion, soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests, diseases, biodiversity and wildlife in an agro-ecosystem - an ecological system managed and shaped by humans.

The development of the crops – and what can we do with them?
Every time I see the crops grow, it feels like getting a present! I would like to share this joy with you by telling you which crops we plant and what good we get in return.
Most of the crops we have planted before, have fortunately survived, namely durian cuttings, pineapple, sereh (lemongrass), ginger, rumputgaja (elephant grass), porang and papaya. Only the strong crops survive. We apply the “placenta technique”. The Placenta Technique means that the cutting is protected and nourished by two branches of the cassava that are inserted diagonally under the cutting. These grow together, creating a shadow. The roots of the cassava feed the cutting at the same time.
I brought kelor seed (moringa oleifera) from Yogyakarta and made cuttings of it. The kelor tree has the same function as the gamal tree, namely to release nitrogen to the soil and it can also serve as organic material for making compost. But you can make so much more with it, namely soap, tea and face mask. You can also eat it and you can use the seeds to purify water.
Cuttings of mulberry and markissa (passion fruit), these are both delicious fruits that can also be used to make jam or tasty drinks. Markissa also attracts pollinatorslike bees, which are also useful for the transfer of pollen grains from cocoa flowers – cocoa flowers die off if they are not pollinated within 24 hours.
We also want to add vanilla. This will hopefully be one of the climbers in our agroforestry model garden next to the markissa!
Bungatelang (butterfly pea flower) is a flower that can be used as a blue dye and to make tea. We also want to plant it so that tea can be made and sold.
This is just a selection of the crops we will plant. What is important is that these crops are beneficial to the soil and offer a chance for our own consumption! This is a good example of the reciprocity between human and nature: as soon as you give something to nature, you get something in return. And not just a little.Yummy!

Welcome animals!
We notice that the rumput gaja (elephant grass) attracts a lot of grasshoppers! This can have a positive effect on predators, such as spiders, that are useful in the garden. No need to panic, because these animals are desperately needed too! We also saw a green snake in the garden for the first time! This is a good sign, because the more life in your garden, the better. Of course, you don't want too many wild animals in the garden, but that’s not the caseat the moment.Because of the presence of many frogs, snakes will come. Frogs are beneficial, because they eat mosquitoes and other insects that are too abundant. The ecosystem is starting to take off!

Connecting with people
This month there were a lot of important meetings but I absolutely wouldn't have wanted to miss two of them. The first was a meeting with ibu Masnah. She is an entrepreneur with, among other things, a compost company and sheruns her own café, which she regularly opens for events. To name one, there was a "Next generation" group that came together to talk about sustainable steps for the future. She also experiments with crops. A very cool example is that by using pineapple enzymes she can make coconut oil! How special is that! We can learn a lot from Ibu. This also shows how valuable it is to connect with people. Together you stand strong!

 second meeting was in Tomoni with the teachers of the agricultural school. Pak Hamka, who we know from the farmers’ cooperative CahayaSehati, introduced us. I met the village chief and together we went to the school. There I met four teachers and they were very excited to participate in the boot camp we want to organize for the young people in the model garden. The goal is to involve the young people in our project. We want to focus on introducing agroforestry, pruning, mulching, the influence of pesticides, and viruses that we can prevent. Besides the focus on agriculture, we plan to teach them English to increase their chances.
The program will consist of a two-day session in whicha group of about 15 students from the farm school will participate. It was very nice to see the school and to hear that there was a lot of interest in our plan! The head of the village said he did see a future in agroforestry for his village! I got so excited! Well, let's not move too fast, but I do think it's a very nice step :)

Compost house, worm bin project, well and bridge
The construction of the compost house had started in November and was completed in January. Very nice, because now we can finally make compost. The only problem is still collecting enough organic material, but I notice that we are becoming more and more inventive. One day we didn't have any compost, but we did have sand, dry husks of coconuts and remnants of an old tree. We started mixing sand, earth and small pieces of coconut husks. Coconut husks are good soil improvers because they contain potassium, iron, magnesium, copper and zinc. And there we got it: compost!
Together with Ifat, the son ofpak Amir, we robbed the fridge to make a worm bin for the compost house. That was a laugh! A worm bin is a trough with compost worms that make compost from vegetable, fruit, garden and kitchen waste. It is a short-term solution for now. I am curious how long this system will last. In addition, the compost worms are difficult to obtain here, because worm binsare not yet widely used.
A few men have come to finish the well. Very nice, now we finally have water for the dry periods. We just have to think of a system to connect the pump. My preference is to use solar energy, but unfortunately that is not very cheap yet. We will have to look into this and look at possible alternatives!
We also had a bridge built to improve accessibility to the model garden. This will help to make it easier to transport the harvest in the future.

Reflections
In particular, I have described my activities here on the plantation and what our plans are for the future. Besides physical effort through work, I also struggle a lot with my thoughts about the future. For the project to succeed, you can't just drop by and give training and then leave. A lot of large companies and NGOs usually do that, and then things go well, but only for a while. They are less willing to invest quality time in maintaining relationships with the farmers, which means that you see that there is less help from a holistic approach. It is often only about increasing the harvest. The parties leave and the farmers fall back into old practices because they run into problems. Then a new party comes along with new promises. 
This is where we hope to make a difference with project La Galigo, because it is set up from an inner motive, to help people move forward in a natural way and to use their landwhile also giving back to nature. Better for the environment, without pesticides, healthy food for the local population, against deforestation and climate change, no plastic, working towards zero waste but also an added value for the local and regional economy. A complete change of mindset, to how it once was.
Practice shows that it takes us a lot of time to find the right cooperation partners. Team La Galigo is constantly networking with different organizations and individuals. It is vital to create close ties with local people and parties so that they will carry the project from a deep intrinsic motivation, so that it becomes their project. That is the ultimate goal of project La Galigo. Like permaculture so that it becomes ‘way of life’.

With this vision in the back of our minds, we will continue our journey. Together. On our way to a greener future!
Do you have any ideas for us or would you like to let us know what you thought of this blog? Let usknowbyleaving a comment below

​At the moment, pak Amir is busy building the compost shed. It is very important to make organic compost to keep the soil fertile. It is also cheaper if we make our own compost. The foundation has been laid, but the rest is being built by Amir himself. It’s a lot of work!

We have been very busy pruning and planting some butik (porang) and porang plants. Because it is Sunday and there is no school, Ifat, Amir's son, can also help in the garden. He likes to do this. On the picture, you can see that I have put organic material under the tree to improve the soil condition.

​To be more specific, the organic material consists of gamal leaves from fallen trees of all kinds of trimmed gamal trees. I used these as mulch. This is a layer of organic biodegradable material (nitrogen) that is applied to the surface to protect the soil. Mulch is applied to preserve soil moisture, improve soil fertility and health, enhance the visual appeal of the area and reduce weed growth. 

​The result is that we see a lot of worms in the earth, which is a good sign ofhealthy soil! Over the course of several weeks, I found a lot of beautiful insects in the garden, including a wide range of butterflies and beetles. A nice find were also the weaver ants. These useful crawlers are the natural enemies of the dreaded CocoaPodBorer (HAMA PKB). This is a disease of the cocoa fruit, which unfortunately is common in Sulawesi. The fruit is eaten from the inside by the larvae of a moth.  

​It's great to see that nature gives us so much. That's why it's so important to give something back. I have a nice example that illustrates the reciprocity between humans and nature. In preparation for the rainy season, I pruned the gamal trees to prevent the trees from falling over because of the high humidity. The organic material from the pruning can be turned into compost and the remaining branches can be used for firewood in the kitchen. How great is this?

The challenges are big, partly due to the amount of experience and knowledge you gain about agroforestry, but also due to the unpredictability of the climate. There was insufficient rainfall during the last period. The bunga karpet (pinto peanut or arachispintoi) is a very fragile plant. It is best planted when it rains, because the plant fades very quickly. That is why it was decided to plant the bunga karpet as soon as there is enough rain. On the other hand, the gamal, banana and elephant grass can already be planted. The gamalis a shade crop and grows easily, as does banana. Both are trees, in contrast to the bunga karpet, which is a plant. Elephant grass is a sturdy grass species, so this may also tolerate these weather conditions.
 
Identifying the porang plant was another challenge we faced. I saw a video about characteristics of different plants. Some of them are porang plants and others are not. The roots of the plants were cut open in the video. It appears that I had never seen a porang plant in real life. I took a good look at the characteristics of the plant in the video, and most probably our plants are not porang plants. I talked to Fatima and we decided to stop planting 'so-called' porang plants for a while. An important factor that might play a role in this is the market. It is claimed that the porang is worth a lot of money, because it is used for many applications. If we find the right porang plant, we want to resume planting it. Again, we have learned from this: before we invest in the crop, we need to invest more time in finding the right crop and investigate whether there are markets for it in the area!
 
It does me good to help humans and nature and the satisfaction I get from this is super valuable to me!
 
Yusri, thank you for the hard work! It's hard to describe how grateful we are for your help. We hope to continue working closely with you in the future! - Team La Galig

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I met Rudy and Saga in the Dalton Hotel in Makassar shortly after my arrival. This is a place where I have stayed a lot over the last couple of years and where I often have a few meetings before I set off to the project site in Sulawesi. I was happy to see Rudy and Saga again, but we also have an exciting and challenging time ahead of us. This coming week marks the first of a very important period in Organic Cocoa Project La Galigo. 

Before my departure to Saruran I had two meetings at the hotel. The first meeting was with Ulil, a young man from Sulawesi who had just gotten his Master’s Degree in Development and Rural Innovation at the University of Wageningen. His holistic view on food production speak to me and working alongside people that share our vision as a Foundation could be valuable for the continuity and success of the project. After an interesting conversation we promised each other to stay in touch.
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After meeting Ulil, I met up with Peni who works for Rikolto Indonesia. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to meet us at the project site, but we did meet up in Makassar and discussed the progress of the project and a potential collaboration with Rikolto Indonesia.

At 6 o’clock my cousins Yudi and Ester came pick us up. We left for Polewale where we spend the night in the village Saruran where Ester lives and where my grandmother comes from. 

The next morning we visited a couple of family members. Unfortunately, we were short on time and unable to visit everyone.
We also visited the education center Bin Rajj Farm where the production of cocoa is combined with keeping livestock such as goats and cows. The manure of these animals is being used to fertilize the land. It occured to us that there were no shade trees nor banana trees on the land which caused a noticeable difference in temperature in the area. During our visit we were able to see and taste different kinds cocoa varieties: One even better than the other!

They also showed us different grafting techniques. This was especially interesting for Saga who works on an organic fruit plantation in the Netherlands. Her daily duties consist of planting and grafting trees. At 1 o’ clock in the afternoon we continued our journey. We had a long way to go still and decided in the evening to spend the night in Palopo. We arrived at midnight. 

After our breakfast we continued our journey and arrived in Lauwo around 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Already awaiting our arrival was Amir and he and his entire family gave us a warm welcome. A new baby has also just recently become part of the family: Baby Hilmiyah, the daughter of Ijah. She is adorable!

We agreed that we would spend the next 3 nights in the guest house. This way we would be able to work hard and take the necessary steps within this new project phase. I only have 5 nights to do all the things I have planned before my arrival. We must make an inventory of the current status of the model garden and organize a Garden Gathering with the local stakeholders. It is important to include the local government and rural services in the project. 

We rose early today to check upon the model garden. We started off by counting the rows of cocoa trees and then measured the distance between these trees. After that we had a look of what crops are growing in the first four rows of the garden and how the shade trees and banana trees were planted during our absence. We also planned on making a few aerial photographs with a drone, but after a couple of trial and errors, we decided to try it again later (it seems we still need to practice a little more).

After lunch we did a draw-up on what we had seen in the garden. I worked steadily on the overall map of the model garden whilst Saga and Rudy focussed on magnifying the first four rows so that we have good documentation on its current status. On the other side of the world, in the Netherlands, the agroforestry studygroup (a group of agroforestry enthusiasts connected to Anna’s Tuin en Ruigte in Amsterdam) was also consulted. Through their input and the input of the local farmers, we hope to establish the right design for the model garden. It is important to take into consideration the interaction of the different crops and trees. Planning out a model like this is crucial for the garden’s success.

After a bit of planning, we decided to continue making the design on another day. After all, for the Garden Gathering we still have a presentation to prepare.

After dinner we met up with the most influential farmers in the area (the kelompok or local farmer group). This group consists of pak Amir, ibu Fatimah, pak Haeruddin and pak Yusuf. We presented them the booklet Jiao had madeand Wati and ibu Yanti had translated into Indonesian. We also discussed the plans we had for the months to come. We fin dit important that the whole community, including the local government units and rural players are involved in the project. This is why we would like to introduce the third phase of Organic Cocoa Project La Galigo through a Garden Gathering.
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In accordance with the Kelompok the Garden Gathering was planned on Wednesday afternoon. Because the event would take place on such short notice, we decided to visit all the parties in person to invite them. Incredibly exhausted, but content I get a good rest that night. 

After breakfast we headed to ibu Hadidjah, the coordinator of a rural organization in the division of Burau as well as pak Ibrahim, head of the village of Lauwo. We invited them personally for the Garden Gathering.

We only have one day to preparet he presentation. Unfortunately, the wifi-connection at the guest house did not support our plans for a labour-intensive afternoon. I decided calling Syawal (son of pak Amir). He works at a school and an IT-teacher in Angkona, a one hour drive away. Luckily, Yudi was able to bring us to the school where we could use the necessary IT-equipment necessary to finish our work. Whew! 

In the evening we invited one more person to the Gatherhing Pak Muhammed, head of the subdivision of Burau. He was unable to come to the event. Therefore, he send a representative. He also invited Rudy and Saga toa biking event on Saturday. A great opportunity to meet up with Thoriq Hustler, to mingle with the locals and to explore the surroundings by bicycle. 

We got up early and met up with ibu Fatima hand pak Amir. We brought all the things necessary to set up the event. When we arrived, they were already quite busy setting up poles to create a covered area where our guests could sit. Ibu Fatimah was busy making all the food and Rudy, Saga and I worked a little more on our presentation. Later that day Syawal helpe dus set up a beamer. The first guests arrived shortly after 1 o’clock. Pak Yusri, a volunteer who has supported the project since day one, also joined us. This was quite nice, because we would love to include on the long-run. A good 30 farmers arrive dat the Gathering amongst the others that were invited.

I thanked our guests for coming, introduced myself and tried my best to explain what our goals are as a Foundation. I also introduced Rudy and Saga to the group. I told them about everything we have achieved since the project has started in 2018 and that we have officially founded our Foundation with a team of volunteers and a board in the Netherlands. I told them we are busy gathering funds to ensure the project’s continuity and also show them the short clip we made a while ago when we organized a similar Gathering in the Netherlands. In the mean time, we invited the farmers to have a taste of the milk chocolate we brought from the Netherlands. The beans that originated from our model garden were processed into chocolate by Valentina Bosia.

After my introduction was time for Rudy to explain the benefits of agroforestry. He briefly explained the concept and we showed the farmers a short clip. He also explained what he is planning to do in the following months and invited anyone who was eager to learn about the agroforestry method to come and see him at the Kebun. We planned to organize a study group consisting of local farmers who would like to learn more about agroforestry.

After Rudy’s presentation the farmers were invited for a bite to eat and to join us to the Model Garden. This is where the questions started to well up. Farmers were asking about the principles of agroforestry and how this system could reduce diseases and pests. We explained that although the initial implementation of an agroforestry system is quite labour-intensive, it can have major benefits in on the long run.
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Once we return home the day has already come to an end. Most people have already left, but we managed to take a good picture with those who sticked around until the very end. 

This was the last day for me in Lauwo. I used it to make a planning with Rudy and Saga for the coming month. A long list of things that had tob e done and what is necessary in order to do it. Tools, trees, compost facilities, accommodation, an educational center, a model garden version 2.0, a water well, a compost toilet, the list goes on and on. While planning we realized, however, that the month of November is passing by very quickly. In December Rudy leaves for Jogja to study at an Institute for one month. Saga also has to step out briefly to prolong her visa. Afer that the agroforestry design will be implemented further.

In the afternoon I have made some time to visit my family in Angkona. Rudy and Saga joined me and as always their light skin and Western features a very interesting attraction to the locals.

At the end of the day I made sure I said my goodbyes and promised them that with God’s will I will return. Next time, hopefully a whole lot longer. 

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