Hello this is Takeshi CEO of su-re.co.
I met Mr Rahmat, 10 years ago around this time of the year at BMKG (Indonesia Met Office)'s climate field the school. I was working as a climate change expert for Japan international corporation agency (JICA). That time, my Indonesian was not great (I'm not proud of the level of my Indonesia today, anyway), so Mr Rahmat came from a crowd and suddenly whispering to my ear as a translator without asking. So, from this first impression, he was extraordinary so that I asked the BMKG office to include him in my Japanese climate change project.
We are invited to another climate field school for the coffee and cocoa farmers in West Bali. It is under coronavirus pandemic, so the school is an online and offline hybrid training program. Three of the young su-re.co members joined offline and I participated online.
Mr Rahmat became a director (one of the youngest without surprise) and his team is very innovative. I saw farmers are singing between discussion or discussing between singing. I looked like a YouTube star with proper subtitles underneath my face. To be honest, I had a script saying my promise to buy their coffee and cocoa beans if the quality is good. However, this is what I truly believe from bottom of my heart. Training is great, however, without a proper incentive, training won't be utilised. I have seen training projects failed because they did not give market access. If you put an effort to make good coffee beans and if you cannot sell them, you will be discouraged and then you will not try to make the effort again. So it is important to make a business out of the training. This is what I learned when I was working as a researcher and practitioner for international organisations and that's the reason I started this coffee and cocoa business in su-re.co.
I'm happy to continue this climate field school with BMKG and extra happy to connect farmers to a market continuously. Let's make a business out of it!!! ;-)
Wow! I see this as an opportunity for young people to create and support a community which implement sustainable agriculture in Indonesia. Let's make greater impact!
This is what farmers need! When we're talking about climate change impact, we have to remember that farmers will get the impacts most. Climate change and sustainable agriculture will help them to improve their resilience! We have to implement this activity in each region in Indonesia. So inspiring!