As one of the world’s biggest coffee producers, Indonesia relies on its coffee farmers to yield top-tier production. To that end, Iwan Halim Sahputra, a London Metropolitan University alumnus, believes that the first crucial step is to ensure the well-being of coffee farmers and equip them with proper and sufficient tools.
“A colleague and I learned that coffee farmers in the Sumberdem village of Malang were trying to boost the quality of their products but they were lacking in knowledge and skills,” says Iwan. “Then I thought, ‘Why not try to help and share our knowledge with them?’. We knew we had the ability to provide them with the equipment they needed to improve the quality of their harvest and their livelihood.”
After visiting the farmers and learning more about their needs, Iwan began developing his project. “For this project, it was decided that we would provide the farmers with a machine to separate the coffee beans from the skin as well as a solar dryer to assist with the post-peeling process,” he remarks. “This way, the end product - the coffee beans - will be of high quality, which in turn will enable the farmers to increase their selling price and advance their income.”
Iwan notes that the other main objective is to open the farmers’ minds that they can and should gain more for their hard work. “Owing to their tradition, usually the farmers would simply sell the coffee beans without processing them because they believe that’s enough - they don’t need to do anything else,” he recounts. “So what we also do is have discussions with the farmers and instill in them that by further processing the beans, they can sell the beans at a higher price, gain more money, improve their living conditions, and give better education for their children.”