The Status of Postharvest Handling Technology of Coffee In South Sumatera. Indonesia

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1 The Status of Postharvest Handling Technology of Coffee In South Sumatera. Indonesia Budi Raharjo. Yeni Eliza dan Renny Utami Soemantri Sumatera Selatan Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology Jl. Kol. H. Barlian No. 83 Km 6. Puntikayu. Palembang Indonesia (corresponding author) Keywords: Coffee postharvest handling technology. coffee bean. South Sumatera. Abstract South Sumatra Province is the second largest of coffee producer in Indonesia after Lampung with production about tons per year. The South Sumatra coffee. dominated by Robusta and Arabica coffee. is mostly managed by small holder farmers. All this time. the government policy is more oriented in increasing coffee production at the big scale industry. This condition caused a lack of attention to the quality of coffee produced by farmers. It is important to know the status of postharvest technologies and the quality of the coffee which is produced by the small holder farmers. The study was conducted in February until June at Sumber Karya Gumay Ulu Village. Lahat Regency. South Sumatra. The method used was survey with participatory rural appraisal (PRA) comprised of 1) data collection. 2) Focus Group Discussion (FGD). and 3) interviews the farmers. The results showed that the post-harvest handling technology that commonly used by coffee farmers coffee was a combination of wet and dry processing with less selective harvesting system which produced poor coffee bean quality. Most of the coffee quality was still at level 4 based on the value of quality defects referred to SNI No support to the farmers from institutional extension caused lack of understanding in the coffee quality and coffee quality standard. The absence of price incentives also might create lack of motivation among farmers to improve the quality. Introducing post-harvest handling technologies to farmers should be done to improve the quality of coffee. in turn to increase their income. INTRODUCTION Lampung with production about tons per year. The South Sumatra coffee is mostly managing by smallholder which is dominated by Robusta and Arabica coffee. This is because of the height of land is relatively low and the effects of traditional habit. Robusta coffee production of South Sumatra Province accounted for about 29 percent of the national production of robusta coffee ( Ditjenbun. Kementrian Pertanian. 2011). Coffee plantation in South Sumatra Province is largely dominated by a collection of small farms owned by farmers (smallholders) possesing 1-2 hectares of land area. Smallholder farmers who have not yet have the capitals. technology and knowledge to optimally manage the plant. in addition to the farmers generally. have not been able to produce quality coffee beans as required by Indonesian National Standard (SNI). The low quality of coffee production in South Sumatra mainly due to poor farm management. inadequate harvesting and postharvest handling conducted by smallholder farmers who almost entirely produce Robusta coffee. In addition. the market is still absorbing the whole coffee and coffee products but have not provided adequate price incentives for good quality coffee. It is therefore very important to know the status of post-harvest technologies practiced by farmers and the 347

2 quality of the coffee produced. so that it can be recommended the application of technology to improve coffee quality in accordance with the needs of local farmers as well. One method to explore the potential. problems and needs of coffee farmers is an effective and efficient method of participatory rural appraisal (PRA). This method is studying living conditions of the rural areas. through participation of the local community including small-scale farmers hence most people understand the potential. problems. and their needs (Chamber R ). This study aimed to identify the potential. problems and needs of coffee farmers especially related to post-harvest technology using PRA methods. On the basis of understanding of coffee grower perspective on the potential. problems and needs of post harvest technology aspects. it can be recommended the technology that can be applied in coffee processing coffee growers of rice in South Sumatra province. METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in Sumber Karya Village. Gumay Ulu sub-district at Lahat regency of South Sumatra Province in February until June The study was conducted by adopting the PRA method developed by Chambers (1996) on coffee farming through (1) Collecting secondary data; (2) Held a focus group discussion (FGD). and (3) Key informant interviews. Collection of secondary data and key informant interviews are used to identify potential problem areas while extracting priorities and needs of the technology. FGD conducted with farmers. The participants consisted of 4 specialists with expertise in mechanization of agriculture and food technology as well as 20 members of farmer groups. Selection of farmers based on discussions with estate agencies. farmer groups and extension workers. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Village History Gumay Ulu sub-district has a total area of km2 consisting of 9 villages. Number of people living in the Gumay Ulu subdistrict as much as 5106 peoples. Gumay Ulu sub-district located at an altitude of 200 to 350 meters above sea level and considered as a hilly areas. People's livelihoods were coffee and rubber growers (Goverment of Lahat District. 2012). Sumber Karya is one of the villages located in the Gumay Ulu sub-district. This new village was settled in 1991 as a resettlement area. with first placement of local transmigration from Pulau Pinang sub-district (48 households). followed by the subsequent placement of Tanjung Sakti sub-district. Muara Pinang and City Pagaralam. Based on interviews with residents. identified priority problems faced over the years were the lack of capital. shortage of subsidized urea fertilizer. broken clean water facilities. uneven rubber seed aid distribution. damaged village access roads. no coffee seedlings and stem borer attack on coffe plants. The results of FGD among researchers. extension workers and residents generated alternative solutions to overcome the obstacles that have been faced i.e. by the pioneering LKMA (microfinance agribusiness institutions). breach of subsidized fertilizer allocation based on RDKK. submitted a proposal for capital assistance. road improvements as well as support for the operation of water supply systems. Potential and Problems of Rice Coffee Processing Potential can be seen from commodity coffee and coffee production area in Gumay Ulu sub-district. Overall areal in Gumay Ulu subdistrict was around ha with 348

3 production of 300 tons coffe beans / year (Goverment of Lahat District. 2012). Type of coffee grown mostly was Robusta. Almost all citizens have a coffe garden and used the land around the mountain chain to grow coffee. Farmers in Gumay Ulu subdistrict were selling coffee in the form of coffee grains. half ground from mix of immature green beans and red matture ones. There was also some farmers who produced coffee in the form of powder. However. the ground coffee processing was only conducted if there was an order so that the production process is not continuous. Many farmers who sold coffee in the form of grains told that the benefits received was higher than in the form of red fruit. in addition to coffee in the form of grains will last longer in storage. According to research conducted by Khairati. N. (2011). the average profit margin for farmers to sell coffe in the form of red fruits was Rp with a margin of 65.17% share. while in the form of coffee grains was Rp with a margin of % share. The main problems faced by coffee farmers is capital constraints. limitations of technology in the process of drying coffee beans and a low quality coffee. The lack of capital owned by the farmers forced them to borrow money from moneylenders for operational cost of their coffee gardens. The debt will be paid at the time of harvest. These conditions forced farmers to sell their produce as soon as possible. Besides. topography of Gumay Ulu sub-district which is located in the hills cause a limitation to make drying ground for drying coffee beans while numerous mechanical dryers are not available. These factors lead to lower quality of coffee produced as indicated by data of coffee quality analysis conducted on samples of coffee from various farmers in the Gumay Ulu sub-district (Table 1). Results of analysis of water content showed that 10 out of 13 coffee samples have met ISO standard which is below 12.5%. The test results of levels of impurities showed that one sample was classified as quality 2. Eight samples were quality 5 and four samples as quality 6. Only two samples having scores above the standard which was a maximum of 0.5%. The tests conducted was using methods of Indonesian National Standard (SNI) Status of Technology Processing of coffee cherries into coffee beans / grain coffee is usually done in three ways: dry processing (Dry Process). wet processing (Fully Washed Process) and semi-wet processing (Semi Washed Process). Coffee processing performed by rice farmers in Gumay Ulu sub-district was dry processing method (Figure 1). Processing in this way is done through four stages i.e. harvesting. Drying of coffee fruits/cherries. Stripping dried cherries and packaging / storage. Farmers in Gumay Ulu sub-district harvested coffee in three stages which were the early stages of harvesting. middle and end of the harvesting times. Coffee harvest activities have a special technique; one of the most important was harvesting in stages at least three stages in order to obtain good quality cherries. Harvesting was done manually by picking the coffee cherries. At the beginning of the harvest, the cherries were still not entirely mature indicated by red color. There are red, yellow and green cherries mixed. Harvesting is done only on red fruits. In the middle of harvesting, the fruits were almost entirely red. In these conditions the amount of coffee fruit will be maximal, while at the end of the harvesting time, the farmers will harvest the whole coffee fruit either red. yellow or green. 349

4 Drying Coffee farmers in the Gumay Ulu sub-district were generally drying coffee fruit by sundrying on the ground of the home yard and on the edge of the road. There were also farmers who directly perform the drying on the field ground near the coffee gardens. The drying process depends on the weather. If the weather is shiny all day, the drying process carried out within 9-10 days The thickness of coffee cherries layers spreaded on the ground was about 3-5 cm. Stripping After having dried coffee cherries, the next process was peeling into coffee grains. Peeling the coffee skins was done by using a huller machine. Packaging and Storage After peeling, the dried coffee beans obtained was packed into rice sacks then sold to middlemen. Synthesis of Potential, Problems. and Post-Harvest Technology Needs Post-harvest technology of coffee that has applied at the farm level was still not sufficient. Utilization of machinery had not disseminated properly and the price of machinery was relatively expensive (Mayrowani et al. 2012). So the development of postharvest technology requires hard work especially for disseminating it to the coffee farmers in Gumay Ulu sub-district. The first thing which has to be done is to increase farmers' awareness and understanding of the importance of maintaining the quality of the coffee. Awareness among coffee farmers to improve coffee quality is a key for change towards the achievement of higher coffee production and quality. Based on the assessment of the potential and problems faced by farmers, there were two post-harvest technologies that farmers needed to be applied in their coffee business which were drying and sorting. The simple drying technologies which have to be introduced to the farmers to overcome the problem of drying was the drying flour and the use of tarpaulins as a base for spreading coffee cherries during sundrying. The use of tarpaulins was intended to minimize loss and contamination with dirt during coffee drying. The experts recommend sundrying, while using dryers only in the rainy season. Another technology which has to be introduced and applied are fruit sortation during and after harvest as well as sortation of dried coffee beans. Sortation is done manually using a hand (manual treatment). Sortation is conducted to separate the superior fruit (ripe. pithy. uniforms) from the inferior fruit (defected, black, broken. perforated and infested by pests / diseases). Impurities such as leaves. twigs. dirt and gravel must be removed. as this may damage the machine peeler. This process is considered necessary at this time in Gumay Ulu sub-district. The coffee farmers did not conduct sortation. This was indicated by the results of analysis which shown the high percentage levels of impurities contained in coffee grains. Farmers were hesitate to do the sorting because there was no incentive price provided by middlemen between the sorted and unsorted coffee beans and grains. This was unfortunate because the sorting process can homogenize the quality of coffee produced. Role of extension workers, agricultural agencies and institutions of farmer groups is necessary for improving the quality of coffee there. So far, the role of the farmer groups in encouraging its members to introduce,apply and develop post-harvest activities was 350

5 considered as very low. The role of this institutions was still weak and did not able to provide a strong incentive for members to further improving post-harvest handling practices of the coffee (Herminingsih H. 2011). CONCLUSION Potency for development of coffee industry in the Gumay Ulu sub-district were considered prospective enough yet for the application of post-harvest processing of coffee was not optimal. Problems encountered include post-harvest drying and low quality coffee produced. Technology needed to address the problem as perceived by coffee farmers was tarpaulins method, drying floor. mechanical dryers during the rainy season and fruit sortation at harvest and sortation of dried beans prior to packeand stored. Literature Cited Herminingsih H Strengthening the Role of Farmers in Developing Farming Coffee People ( Case Study of Farmers in the village of Sidomulyo Silo subdistrict Jember District ). J-SEP Vol. 5 No. 1 March t 2011 Mayrowani H. Swastika DKS. Supadi. and Suhaeti RN Post Harvest Technology Policy Studies: Needs Analysis. Program Evaluation. and Impact of Post Harvest Technology. Centre for Analysis of Social Economic and Policy Studies. Bogor Khairati N ffect of Arabica Coffee Sales In Shape Fruit Harvest (Cherry Red) Against Economic Arabica Coffee Farmers in the village of Tanjung Beringin Dairi district. Skripsi. Universitas Sumatera Utara. Chamber R PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal Understanding the Participatory Rural. Yogyakarta. Kanisius Pemkab Lahat (accessed on 6 November 2013) 351

6 Tables Table 1. Results of Analysis of Coffee Grains Quality. Parameter Test Result Water Content (%) Defect scores Impurities (%) U U U U U U U U U U U U U Note : U 1 : Farmer Astoni 1 U 8 : Farmer Prapto 1 U 2 : Farmer Sultani U 9 : Farmer Sugiono U 3 : Farmer Sameni U 10 : Farmer Amran S U 4 : Farmer Ujang 1 U 11 : Farmer Aan U 5 : Farmer Dedi A U 12 : Farmer Astoni 3 U 6 : Farmer Astoni 2 U 13 : Farmer Prapto 2 U 7 : Farmer Ujang 2 352

7 Figures Harvest Drying Stripping Dried Cherries Packaging and Storage Figure 1. Dry Method Coffee Processing Figure 2. Drying of coffee beans 353

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