'Sun'days with Yusri

In the month of December, our supervisor Yusri, together with pak Amir, kept track of all activities. Below he reports on the progress in the model garden!

Every Sunday I leave early from Palopo (my hometown) to Lauwo. In total it's a 110 km ride, which I do by motorbike. It's about 2.5 hours driving, so it's still a long way! I arrive in Lauwo around 9, and I’m always warmly welcomed by Amir and Fatimah. I get along very well with them. That also explains why we have been working together for 2 years. I have built a good relationship with them and it feels like we are family.
 
In advance, Rudy and Fatima have written down all the work that needs to be done in the time that Rudy is not here.
 
 Overview of the activities
The activities mainly consist of: 

•  ​Chop&Drop: First you chop or cut the plant material and then you drop it on the ground. All the plant material (leaves, branches, trunks, etc.) forms food for soil-dwelling organisms, resulting in a deep and rich soil.
• Pruning:This is very important for the health of the cocoa trees. By pruning, you take care of several important aspects:
  • Promotes the growth of cocoa pods (cocoa fruits).
  • Reduces pests and diseases, especially the Cacao PodBorer and Black Pod.
  • Controls the height of the tree and the amount of sunlight. It is important that the cocoa tree is not completely in the shade, but catches some sunlight. Shadow provides moisture, which is a breeding ground for diseases.
• Harvesting: Mainly ripe cocoa pods. If these remain after some time, the cocoa pods will rot, which attracts pests that will give diseases to the trees. In order to maintain a healthy plantation, it is important to harvest regularly.
• Planting gamal and banana trees: These provide shade and in addition the leaves and branches emit nitrogen when used as a chop & drop material.
• Planting bunga karpet (pinto peanut or arachispintoi) and rumputgaja (elephant grass): These plants release nitrogen, which ensures a healthy soil.

Compost house

Meet Yusri!

Team La Galigo presents: Yusri, our first volunteer! He is 30 years old and graduated from the Department of Pests and Plant Diseases at Hasanuddin University in Makassar. He has workedat several NGO's, including Rainforest Alliance and Swisscontact, for 6 years. In his functions, he has been involved in training and supporting farmers in the field of GAP (GoodAgriculturePractices) and Rainforest Alliance certification standards. In addition, he offers concrete solutions and gives advice to farmers on how to deal with pests and diseases.

Yusri considers it important to grow organic cocoa. This way of growing cocoa requires less production costs, so the farmers ultimately earn more! It is also better for nature: if the farmers continue to use expensive non-organic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, it will permanently damage the cocoa plants and their surroundings. This will lead to increased susceptibility of plants to pests and plant diseases. The use of chemicals is harmful to farmers, their families and nature, Yusri states.
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A year before the foundation was founded, Yusri and pak Amir started organic cultivation. During the Garden Gathering in Lauwo, Fatima approached Yusri to ask if he would like to visit the project site several times a week, as a supervisor. It is very useful if there is someone to supervise the project at the moment, since Rudy is away for a month in the meantime. In addition, it is very important that steps are taken and that the right method is used. The transition to agroforestry is a large one. Pak Amir has had his own way of growing for years and that increases the chance of lapsing into old practices. This makes the supervising role of Yusri essential for La Galigo at this stage.
That's why we're so happy with Yusri. He is dedicated and is able to support La Galigo every Sunday, despite his full-time job and family. Yusri has kept track of all the work together with pak Amir in a report that we will share with you 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.

Porang plants

Ifat working

Mulch

​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. 

Mulch of banana stem at the cocoa trees.

Mulch of dried banana leaves.

​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?

Through this experience on the plantation, I have realized that agroforestry is very important and my enthusiasm for organic cultivation has only increased. That's why I went to an event, together with my wife, to learn more about organic farming. There are more and more initiatives for organic cultivation in the area, also within the agricultural department of district Burau, which includes the village of Lauwo.

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

What is porang?
Porang is a tuber crop that grows in the tropics. The plant grows in the wild, but is being cultivated more and more, because it has great economic value. For example, the plant is rich in carbohydrates and contains glucomannan (dietary fibre). This makes the plant suitable for culinary and health applications. In addition, this crop can be used for many industrial purposes. Some examples for which you can use porang: environmentally friendly glue, natural binder for medicines, sustainable binder in various products, substitute for agar-agar, water purifier, substitute for silicone gel, food ingredient (binder and/or thickener), and making material waterproof.