Saving Sindoro

Farmers at Temanggung in Central Java are intercropping tobacco and coffee on their farmland as a means to stop erosion in their mountain villages.

July 21, 2010

THAT afternoon heavy clouds still hung over the slopes of Mt Sindoro in the Central Java town of Temanggung. But Sumeri remained on his farm, 1,000 meters above sea level, as he deftly picked black Arabica coffee beans from the trees. One by one the beans, each the size of a marble, filled his bag. “Not bad, I got 40 kilos of coffee beans today,” said Sumeri, a 31-year-old elementary school graduate in a conversation with Tempo two weeks ago.

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