Popular Report 2009

ANNUAL REPORT 2009

Table of Contents 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Cover Table of Contents Foreword About VECO Indonesia Summary 2009 Shortening Chains to Increase Selling Prices 7. Creating Food Stocks Influences Policy 8. Bringing Healthy Products to Consumers 9. Using New Media to Share Knowledge 10. 2009 VECO Indonesia Budget 11. Achievements 12. Key Activities

Annual Report 2009 Texts and Pictures VECO Indonesia VECO Indonesia Jl. Kerta Dalem No. 7, Sidakarya Denpasar, Bali 80224, Indonesia Phone. +62 361 7808264, 727378 Fax. +62 361 723217 Email. admin@veco足indonesia.net Website: www.vecoindonesia.org

The Annual Report 2009 was produced on 50 percent recycled paper as VECO Indonesia's cares about the environment.

2

Foreword In late 2008 the world was shaken by an economic crisis.

Since then Indonesia has shown a remarkable resilience towards this trend and is now among the fastest economic growers in the Asian region. I ask myself, “What effect do all these developments have on family farmers in Indonesia?”. It is difficult to answer this question directly as no studies are available as I know of but for sure most of these events have happened without any positive/negative effects for our farmers. They remain in the same sometimes difficult situation.

Why do farmers not benefit more directly from some good economic news by selling more and getting a higher price? To get a comprehensive answer to this question probably I have to ask advice from an agronomist. On the other hand, it is clear that family farmers are often not seen as strong actors in the agribusiness sector and agriculture chains. This results, among others, in continued unfair prices for their products and insufficient access to alternative markets. Family farmers can only benefit and improve their livelihood when they are taken seriously and therefore they need to organize themselves.

In 2009 for the first time in many years VECO Indonesia has supported directly locally based Farmer Organizations for some of its activities. This is the first beginning of a new approach in VECO­Indonesia were we will focus directly on the Farmers Organizations themselves and also provide direct support. Our dream (and certainly of themselves) is that Farmer Organizations become strong and independent member based organizations that are able to provide benefits for farmer members. Hard work is needed in the coming years but we believe that through

direct guidance and capacity building in technical agriculture, business and organization aspects this can be achieved in 3 to 5 years for most of the Farmer Organizations. The coming years VECO Indonesia will work with NGO partners, specialists, (strategic) development organizations and local governments to be able to achieve this goal.

At VECO­Indonesia the most visible change took place in that Field Offices were put into operation in three additional working areas i.e. Labuan Bajo (West­Flores), Maumere (East­Flores) and Pare­Pare (South­Sulawesi) and increase local networking and direct support to our partners. Also we were able to strengthen our team with several new colleagues both in the programme and for support functions adding new competences and creating new dynamics in our team. Many of the activities that we supported can be found in this publication.

I hope it gives you a reasonable impression of what the total of VECO Indonesia, partners and farmers themselves have done in 2009 to work towards our common goal: “more prosperous family farmers practicing sustainable agriculture”.

Happy reading!

Rogier Eijkens Regional Representative VECO Indonesia

3

About VECO Indonesia

Vredeseilanden Country Office (VECO) Indonesia is one of seven regional offices of Vredeseilanden, a non­ governmental organisation (NGO) headquartered in Belgium. As well as in Indonesia, Vredeseilanden also works in West and East Africa, Central and South America, and East Asia. In each of these countries, Vredeseilanden aims to achieve the vision it has worked towards for the past 25 years: improved welfare for poor, organised farmers.

To achieve this vision, VECO Indonesia collaborates with community based organisations (CBOs), farmer organisations, national organisation networks, the private sector, and poor farmers through three main programmes: sustainable agriculture chain development, advocacy, and consumer awareness. VECO Indonesia is also working to become a learning organisation. For this reason, learning and information exchange are important to VECO Indonesia.

Through a continuously developing approach, VECO Indonesia strengthens farmer families in all aspects of agriculture chains, from production to consumption.

VECO Indonesia supports sustainable agriculture production, adding value to the value of sustainable agriculture products that are beneficial to farmer

4

families, increasing farmers’ access to markets, and encouraging consumers to consume sustainable agriculture products. VECO Indonesia also supports advocacy measures at the local and national levels, to raise the position of farmer families that adopt sustainable agriculture practices.

VECO Indonesia’s regional office is in Denpasar, Bali. In 2008, VECO Indonesia set up a field office in Jakarta (Java) to focus on advocacy and consumer awareness programmes. In 2009, three more field offices were opened in Pare­pare (Sulawesi), Labuan Bajo (Western Flores), and Maumere (Eastern Flores) to run programmes in the field. As of 2009, VECO Indonesia was running programmes in six provinces: Central Java, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara. Programmes are implemented in a number of districts, according to the potential of the target locations of VECO Indonesia’s NGO partners.

Summary 2009 Continuing on from the changes made since 2008, VECO Indonesia completed several more changes in its organ­ isational structure and to its programmes in the field.

Changes at VECO Indonesia level included creating new positions and recruiting new people.

Nevertheless, programmes and activities in 2009 contin­ ued to focus on sustainable agriculture chain develop­ ment (SACD). This is the main way in which VECO Indonesia helps to strengthen the capacity of rural famil­ ies, both men and women, in developing farming enter­ prises, from production to marketing.

To support the strengthening of commodity chains, VECO Indonesia identifies focus commodities for each district, depending on its potentials. These focus commodities in­ clude cocoa, coffee, organic rice, peanuts, cashew, and organic vegetables. In 2009, VECO Indonesia also held an annual partners’ meeting, which included discussion of commodity chain analysis. Other activities included meeting with consumers as the final link in SACD chains and the purchasers of agricultural commodities.

In 2009, VECO Indonesia also held several multi­stake­ holder dialogues to discuss strengthening commodity

chains and ways of building synergy in commodity chain development through food sovereignty. This aspect was the main topic of discussion at a major event held in East Nusa Tenggara for farmers across the islands of Flores and Lembata, and West Timor: the 2009 NTT Food Summit and Conference.

The focus of farmer strengthening in 2009 shifted away from generalised sustainable agriculture development to concentrate more on developing and strengthening par­ ticular agriculture commodity chains (such as coffee, co­ coa, rice, cashew, and peanuts). This allows the target groups to focus more on the commodities selected for development. In 2009, VECO Indonesia supported a total of 28,154 organised farming families in 266 villages in 19 districts.

Programme support is provided not only to farmer groups at the village/sub­village level, but also to farmer group associations, credit unions, and collective marketing as­ sociations that are organised collectively for the purpose of carrying out collective marketing of commodities. This approach depends on the cultural condition and context of the individual VECO partner target location.

5

Objective I – Economy

Shortening Chains to Increase Selling Prices 2009 brought change for farmers in Wulang Gitan Dis­ trict, East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara. Since 2009, they have been selling their cocoa directly to PT Mars rather than going through inter­island traders who pay the farmers less for their cocoa. Now, they not only have a more secure buyer, but also get higher prices. “The most important change is that we have found a fair and ambi­ tious collective marketing system,” said Darius Don Bor­ uk, coordinator of the farmer organisation Jaringan Petani Wulang Gitang (JANTAN).

As well as having a guaranteed buyer, the farmers are also able to sell their cocoa at higher prices. This is be­ cause of the farmers increased capacity in marketing this product. “Now we sell wet cocoa, because the profits are greater,” added Don. For dry cocoa, he explains, farmers get IDR 17,000/kg, and for wet cocoa, IDR 8,000/kg. Be­ cause 3 kg of wet cocoa yields 1 kg of dry cocoa, the farmers prefer to sell their cocoa wet. “We also make la­ bour savings because we don’t need to dry the cocoa,” he continued.

Contributing to this increase in the capacity of farmers in cocoa marketing has been the facilitation JANTAN has re­ ceived from VECO Indonesia and its partner, Ayu Tani.

This facilitation by VECO Indonesia included training and mediation with the purchaser, PT Mars. Other forms of support include product training to improve productivity, through proper pruning, frequent harvesting, fertilising,

6

and sanitation, as well as techniques for negotiating with purchasers.

A key lesson from Wulang Gitang is that farmer organisa­ tions like JANTAN can be effective tools for influencing the marketing chain and helping to get fairer prices for farmers.

VECO Indonesia, through its partners, promotes capacity building for farmers, as individuals and in groups, in business management of agricultural commodities, in­ cluding coffee as well as cocoa. In Tana Toraja, South Su­ lawesi, for example, VECO Indonesia promotes farmer involvement with government agencies that are con­ cerned with agriculture, such as the agriculture agency and the forestry agency. One key outcome has been re­ cognized by the Toraja District Forestry Agency that the coffee produced by coffee farmers in VECO Indonesia’s target area meets the standards for organic coffee. This recognition is a step forward towards achieving an or­ ganic label from the certification agency.

Activities carried out by VECO Indonesia include sending coffee farmers to learn about coffee at the Coffee and Cocoa Research Centre in Jember, making peer visits to Toarco Jaya to observe the coffee processing process, and facilitating training and meetings to discuss partner strengthening.

Objective 2 – Advocacy

Creating Food Stocks Influences Policy With capital from Lembaga Studi Kemasyarakatan dan Bina Bakat (LSKBB) Solo, and VECO Indonesia, the Sari Rejeki farmer group in Boyolali District, Central Java, is able to purchase rice from its members at a higher price.

This encourages farmers to sell their rice to the group rather than to middlemen. Which means more profit for the farmers, and for the group. The group also manages community­based food stocks.

Sari Rejeki farmer group, which also markets organic rice, is one of five groups, which include Sari Mulyo (65 mem­ bers), Sari Rejeki (33 members), Sumber Ekonomi (42 members), Sari Tani (85 members), Ngudi Cukup (48 members), and Sido Makmur (60 members). All these farmer groups manage community­based rice stocks. The variety stored is a red rice called sleggreng, a local vari­ ety produced by many local farmers.

In 2009, local farmers developed community­based food stocks to improve their food security. They also received support from LSKBB in production processes such as mak­ ing compost and growing seedlings, as well as capacity building in organising, administration, post­harvest man­ agement, including drying and storage, and in entrepren­ eurship. The farmer groups have also got together to form the Boyolali Organic Farmers’ Association and the Boyolali Community­Based Food Stock Network, with the aim of achieving food sovereignty for the farmers.

tion for Food Sovereignty (Koalisi Rakyat untuk Kedau­ latan Pangan ­ KRKP) are two VECO Indonesia partners that focus on advocacy. API focuses on organising farm­ ers, and KRKP on food sovereignty. However, both work together on various national issues, such as the Rice Platform, which is facilitated by VECO Field Antenna Jakarta, for discussion of the rice chain and government purchase price, and study visits to Cipinang Rice Market­ ing Centre in Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

Creation of food sovereignty is one of the objectives of the advocacy program of VECO Indonesia and its partners.

At the national level, the Alliance of Indonesian Farmers (Aliansi Petani Indonesia – API) and the People’s Coali­

To support its advocacy objectives, VECO Indonesia en­ courages partners to become credible resources for issues related to agriculture, making it easier for them to parti­ cipate in and influence policy.

7

Objective 3 – Consumer Awareness

Bringing Healthy Products to Consumers Consumer of organic products, Agus Januraka now finds it easier to get organic vegetables in Denpasar. This travel agent employee is adopting a healthier lifestyle, that in­ cludes no smoking, giving up alcohol, doing yogya, and switching to organic products. But he says it was diffi­ cult to get organic vegetables because so few outlets sell them. Now, he can buy them at the Bali Organic Con­ sumer Awareness Consortium kiosk in the office of Envir­ onmental Education Centre (PPLH), in Sanur, Denpasar, Bali.

This kiosk was officially opened in October 2009 by a consortium of three NGOs in Bali: Bali Organic Associ­ ation (BOA), Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture (IDEP), and PPLH. This consortium is part of VECO Indonesia's program to raise consumer awareness and encourage people to switch to organic agricultural products. VECO Indonesia also facilitated a similar kiosk in Solo, Central Java, which is managed by the Solo Con­ sumer Awareness Consortium. This consortium comprises Lembaga Studi Kemasyarakatan dan Bina Bakat (SKBB), Jaringan Kerja Pertanian Organik (Jaker PO), and Gita Pertiwi.

These kiosks were opened in response to a lack of outlets selling organic agriculture produce in Denpasar and Solo.

While there is a growing number of consumers who would like to switch to organic agricultural products, many oth­ ers do not have enough information about organic farm­ ing. As well as bringing organic products to customers, these kiosks also serve to help consumers get the right information about organic agricultural products.

8

The kiosks also help farmers. Ronce Wayan, a vegetable farmer in Bedugul, Bali says that farmers have not had sufficient access to markets for their organic products.

"So we really need the help our consumers. Organic agri­ cultural products are more expensive, but they are healthier," said Ronce.

To encourage customers to switch to organic products, VECO Indonesia adopts several strategies. The first is to build the capacity of partners in the campaign to pro­ mote organic agricultural products. Activities that have been undertaken include a consumer awareness workshop in Bali. The second strategy is to provide information about healthy food through various media. At the nation­ al level, Perkumpulan Indonesia Berseru (PIB) is an act­ ive partner, writing about healthy food in internal media and other media. The third strategy is to provide sustain­ able healthy food for potential consumers who want to buy organic agricultural products, through kiosks like those in Bali and Solo.

Objective 4 – Learning Organisation

Using New Media to Share Knowledge 2009 marked a leap forward for VECO Indonesia in the use of information technology. In the past year, since April 2009, VECO Indonesia IT Officer Decy Sophan Ary­ anto has been working hard to provide this technology.

Decy has built an IT information technology system, which includes a server, intranet, digital library, and database, which help VECO Indonesia staff to share in­ formation. Through this infrastructure, VECO Indonesia staff can now communicate more easily.

“VECO Indonesia has a rich source of books and know­ ledge. This potential needs to be managed properly to support its aims as a learning organisation,” said Decy.

So Decy has also developed a digital library to allow staff to share knowledge with each other. Through this digital library, VECO Indonesia staff can enter their reference lists into the system, where they can be easily accessed, and even downloaded, by other staff members.

Because the system is being developed, it is yet to be used on a routine basis at VECO Indonesia. However, it does promise to make sharing of information among VECO Indonesia staff much easier. This digitalisation and use of technology complements other approaches that VECO Indonesia, as a learning organisation, already adopts, such as the Collective Learning Board, Knowledge Cafe, Home Week, and so on.

Not only for staff, learning initiatives for VECO Indonesia and its partners also continue. At the annual meeting of VECO Indonesia partners in August 2009, for example, we visited the Coffee and Cocoa Research Centres in Bondo­

woso and Jember. Around 100 participants at the VECO Indonesia annual meeting learned about coffee and co­ coa cultivation and processing at these two centres.

VECO Indonesia, through its partners, also supports visits by farmers to learn about the commodities produced in other locations. For example, as part of the learning pro­ cess, cocoa farmers in East Flores visited Tana Toraja and PT Mars in Ende to learn about cocoa processing, and farmers from Timor went to Lumajang to learn about post harvest processing.

VECO Indonesia is also actively involved in other know­ ledge sharing events, such as the 2009 NTT Food Summit, a workshop on the system of rice intensification (SRI), a cocoa forum in Toraja, and the FAO Food Summit. It also campaigns for sustainable agriculture through the mass media.

9

2009 VECO Indonesia Budget To support programme activities in 2009, VECO Indonesia obtained funds from several donor organisations. The largest portion of the funding (61 percent) came from the Belgian government (DGOS), with the remainder coming from other donors, such as Cordaid (13 percent), NOVIB (11 percent), Miserior (10 percent), and ILEIA (6 percent), and non­binding private contributions.

Funds are raised from members of the public in Belgium through annual campaigns on a variety of issues, which depend on the situation and condition in the programme area. The total programme budget for 2009 was EUR 941,336 or IDR 13,118,965,754.

The budget for 2009 was used, among other things, for programme operations and partner programme costs, including [1] opening VECO Indonesia field antenna in four new locations: Jakarta, East Nusa Tenggara 1, East Nusa Tenggara 2, and Sulawesi, and the operating cost of these offices; [2] training/seminars/workshops, studies, farmer peer visits, farmer meetings, dialogue and monitoring; [3] investment to support implementation of programmes by NGO partners; [4] the programme implementation teams, experts; [5] work costs (office rental, maintenance, office stationery, etc]; [6] operating costs of the VECO office in Indonesia, to do programme planning, monitoring and evaluation; and [7] meetings with private actors and other strategic networks at the local and national level, to support commodity chain development.

Sources of VECO Indonesia’s 2009 Donation Donor

Percentage Euro

Rupiah DGOS

7,962,607,999

571,366

61%

Cordaid

1,742,011,250

125,000

13%

Novib

1,393,609,000

100,000

11%

766,484,950

55,000

6%

1,254,248,100

90,000

10%

13,118,961,299

941,366

100%

ILEA Misereor TOTAL

Uses of VECO Indonesia’s 2009 Budget Target

Percentage Rupiah

Local Partner

7,060,075,800

506,600

54%

VECO Indonesia

6,058,889,954

434,760

46%

13,118,965,754

941,370

100%

TOTAL

10

Euro

Achievements In 2009, there were several achievements for VECO In­ donesia. One of these was the increase in the number of farmer organisations formed with support from VECO In­ donesia partners. The purpose of these farmer organisa­ tions is to support production marketing and perform policy advocacy on sustainable agriculture chain manage­ ment and management of natural resources. These organ­ ised and developing farmer organisations and associations include the Toraja Coffee Farmers’ Associ­ ation (Asosiasi Petani Kopi Toraja ­ APKT) in Toraja, South Sulawesi; the Mbay Organic Farmers’ Association (Asosiasi Petani Organik Mbay ­ ATOM) in Nagekeo, East Nusa Teng­ gara; the Bituna Association (Asosiasi Bituna) in North Central Timor; the Wulang Gitan Farmers’ Network (Jaringan Petani Wulanggitang ­ Jantan) in Flores Timur; the Self Reliant Farmers’ Network (Jaringan Tani Mandiri ­ JTM) in Boyolali; the Association of Boyolali Farmers (As­ osiasi Petani Boyolali ­ APPOLI; and the FAMASA coffee processing unit in Ngada District.

One of the strategic partners in this advocacy programme to strengthen farmer organisations is the Alliance of In­ donesian Farmers (Aliansi Petani Indonesia ­ API), which has 101,500 members spread across 12 provinces: North Sumatera, South Sumatera, Bengkulu, Lampung, Jambi, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Bali, West Nusa Teng­ gara, East Nusa Tenggara, and Central Sulawesi. In VECO

programme areas – East Nusa Tenggara, Central Java, East Java, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara, API has 58,000 mem­ bers.

In 2009, VECO Indonesia, through its partners, also pro­ moted the creation of the Desa Mandiri Pangan or Food Self­Reliant Villages programme. This programme is about to be launched in three villages in East Flores, Mamasa, and Boyolali, by the People’s Coalition for Food Sover­ eignty (KRKP), through development of community­based food stocks. Through this programme, small farmers will be able to secure their food stocks, helping them move towards food sovereignty.

In Boyolali, Central Java, this programme is supported by the local district government, which contributes funds of around IDR 10 million to about 33 community­based food stock groups.

In East Nusa Tenggara, provincial government is commit­ ted to implementing the Desa Mandiri Pangan Menuju De­ sa Sejahtera programme, which is a collaboration between government and civil society. The aim is to alle­ viate poverty and hunger. Technical guidelines on how the Desa Mandiri Pangan concept will be implemented in the three villages have already been prepared.

11

Key Activities In 2009, VECO Indonesia and its partners implemented or participated in several key activities.

FAO Summit VECO Indonesia and its partners attended the World Summit on Food Security organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the international body on agriculture and food, on 16­18 November 2009. This was a forum to discuss food sovereignty at the international level. Held in Rome, Italy, the aim of the summit was to strengthen strategic alliances and dialogue on global hunger and the global food crisis.

Regional Finance Workshop VECO Indonesia hosted the Vredeseilanden Regional Finance Workshop, in November 2009. This four­day event, organised by the Vredeseilanden Head Office, took place in Puri Dalem Hotel, Sanur, Denpasar. As well as VECO Indonesia, also attending the workshop were VECO from Laos and Vietnam. Over the four days, the participants discussed new developments related to VECO’s financial management.

Regional Conference on Food Sovereignty On 19­21 February 2009, VECO Indonesia took part in the Asia Pacific Network for Food Sovereignty (APNFS) annual

12

conference in Bangkok. At this meeting, VECO Indonesia and its partners gave a presentation on developments in food sovereignty advocacy in Indonesia. Also attending were other APFNS members from Indonesia, including Bina Desa, Institute of Global Justice (IGJ), Alliance of Indonesian Farmers (API) and KRKP. Vredeseilanden PLA Workshop On 19­23 October 2009, VECO Indonesia participated in a Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) Workshop in Leuven, Belgium. Attending the event were all Vredeseilanden regional offices in Asia, East Africa, West Africa, Central America, and delegates from the VECO head office in Belgium. Over four days, the participants discussed the format for the annual plan and how to simplify it.

Rice Campaign VECO Indonesia partner KRKRP was also actively involved in the Year of Rice (YORA) campaign, Save Our Rice, organised by PAN­AP. The theme of the campaign was Using and Respecting Local Rice and Rejecting GMO Rice.

The campaign took the form of a rice festival in Yogya, on 17 – 19 May 2009. This activity was also supported by VECO, Oxfam, and Hivos.