I Wayan Arca is pouring coffee beans into the feed port of a roasting machine with a capacity of 5 kg. From inside the room where he was roasting coffee, he waved and smiled broadly when he found out I was coming.
The morning air still felt cool, but warm air filled the fairly large, elongated room. The roasting machine is placed just behind the door. The wide glass window on one side of the wall provides light that illuminates the room.
Two long wooden tables lined up opposite each other fill two sides of the room. In one corner, a black espresso coffee machine is installed near a shelf of cups and glasses.
Several buckets for storing roasted beans already appear to be filled. If the roasting process takes 15 minutes in one go, I suspect it took him an hour to roast the coffee that morning.
On the outside, a woman in a jacket was sorting green beans at a long table. Set aside defective coffee beans so that they are separated from the good ones. Specialty coffee demands uniformity in coffee bean size and is free from defects. Her fingers are very dexterous. In one working day, she can sort 20 kg of coffee beans.
Stacks of white sacks full of coffee beans littered one wall of the room. It looks like it’s green coffee beans that haven’t been sorted yet.
I Wayan Arca occasionally takes and weighs the sorted coffee beans. Then prepare for roasting. From his nimble and light movements, he seemed to enjoy his work.
Initially, I Wayan Arca preferred another profession to being a coffee farmer in his village. In his eyes, coffee farmers do not have a bright future.
His father, I Wayan Berana, who had been a coffee farmer since he was 19 years old, seemed helpless in dealing with middlemen who arbitrarily set the price of his harvest.
“In the past, when coffee buyers came during the harvest season, they were happy to determine the price, my father, and generally coffee farmers in Ulian, could only say yes. Helpless.” I Wayan Arca, who at that time chose to work on a cruise ship as a mixologist.
Until one day, in 2008, I Wayan Arca accidentally found two Australians having difficulty communicating with the head of Subak Ulian at a coffee collector’s place.
I Wayan Arca, who happened to be taking a holiday from his job as a bartender on a cruise ship, took the initiative to help as a translator between the two parties.
Apparently they are both coffee entrepreneurs from Five Senses Australia who want to help coffee farmers in Ulian Village, Kintamani, improve the quality of their plantation products.
From there, I Wayan Arca actually gained new insight into specialty coffee and its business prospects. Even though at that time he was not immediately interested in exploring coffee farming, as time went by, he began to feel moved.
I Wayan Arca realized that the economic situation of the people in the village where he was born was not very good. Almost all of them have farmed coffee. However, many despair.
Once upon a time, when coffee yields were priced very low at only Rp. 3000/kg, there were many coffee farmers who cut down their coffee plants and replaced them with orange and vegetable crops.
He began to see that there was an opportunity to improve the economy of his village by improving coffee farming methods.
Only by implementing a good coffee method can the coffee harvest be sold at a better price. The farmers in their village already have strong knowledge and experience in coffee farming.
He also made up his mind to wholeheartedly become a farmer and coffee processor.
He realized that he was new to coffee farming and processing, even though he was raised by a family of coffee farmers. However, he could not immediately invite the much more senior coffee farmers in his village to follow the method he had just learned.
In the 1980s, coffee farmers in Ulian Village and other Kintamani areas often received counseling from the Agriculture Service to obtain more productive coffee crops. By pruning trees regularly and applying urea fertilizer.
Indeed, the harvest is abundant. But the microorganisms in the soil are damaged because chemical fertilizers poison the farm soil.
“The important thing is that the harvest is large; it can be sold, so they can send their children to school,” said Arca.
Farmers do not have knowledge about good harvest methods and post-harvest processing using appropriate procedures. Even from there, the coffee has quality that can be sold at a much better price.
He must show that the results of his coffee plantation are better and can be sold at a higher price than most coffee from other plantations. Providing real examples is the most effective way to invite farmers to adopt new coffee farming methods.
Five Senses provided extraordinary support for I Wayan Arca to become more serious about pursuing agriculture and the coffee harvest process. They offer mentors who can accompany them directly.
“If you want a mentor on good coffee farming, coffee processing, roasting, or even marketing, they will give you everything,” said I Wayan Arca.
Farmers from Colombia and Mexico were once sent by Five Senses to work on his coffee farm. So that they can exchange knowledge and gain new insights that can spark creativity in dealing with obstacles and challenges in coffee farming.
“Not all the knowledge of Columbian and Mexican farmers can be practiced here, nor can anything here be practiced there,” Arca said.
Marketing experts from Australia were also brought in specifically to mentor Arca. For a whole month, he was invited to experience firsthand how to build a strong brand and ensure products whose quality is consistently maintained.
“As long as we can maintain the best quality of coffee possible, buyers will look for us,” said Arca, quoting a marketing expert who was his mentor.
Gradually, the results of I Wayan Arca’s coffee plantation are getting better. Hungry Bird and Revolver Roasters are two specialty coffee roasters who were the first to look at their plantation products.
Connecting directly with the user market, no longer going through middlemen, clearly shortens the transaction chain and increases profits. But what’s even better is that he can get feedback to improve the quality of his coffee directly from those who are closer to coffee-loving consumers.
He always discussed improving farming, harvesting, and coffee processing methods with his father. He still really needs the experience of his father, who really knows the character of coffee, farm fields, and village communities.
“I don’t completely change what my parents have done, but I continue to make improvements as necessary according to the era,” he said.
From his interactions with his father, he was able to understand how to use the same pattern in inviting other coffee farmers in his village.
“They don’t like being lectured by juniors. “Because, in many things related to farming and coffee, they are much more experienced,” said Arca.
The collaboration between I Wayan Arca and his father in improving the quality of the coffee produced was successful. Arca Ulian Coffee is now very well known in the specialty coffee market.
The price of the harvested coffee is far above the price of ordinary coffee. Other farmers are starting to become interested in returning to coffee farming.
Now is the right time to start inviting coffee farmers in their villages to do coffee farming with a better method.
Initially, I Wayan Arca invited farmers to change their habit of harvesting coffee from knitted picking to red picking. Obviously, it’s not easy. But I Wayan Arca has a surefire way.
“I brought a scale to immediately show the difference in weight between ripe red coffee cherries and unripe green ones,” said Arca.
He showed the farmers that 1 kg was equivalent to 150 red coffee cherries. Meanwhile, green coffee cherries need 250 pieces. Meanwhile, the price of red cherries is twice the price of green cherries.
If farmers harvest coffee cherries only when they are completely ripe, they will gain multiple profits, both in terms of the total weight of the harvest and the price per kilogram of the harvest.
“I made red bracelets so that farmers can easily recognize coffee cherries that are ready to be harvested. Only those that are the same as the red color on the bracelet can be harvested.”
I Wayan Arca is a person who always tries to use simple but effective methods. He doesn’t want to guide farmers in a way that is complicated and too idealistic. So that they are willing to practice farming methods that comply with the demands of good coffee quality standards.
“The main thing is how they can get more profits. “Only after their stomachs are safe, it’s easier to encourage more advanced thinking,” he joked.
Currently, I Wayan Arca owns 8 hectares of coffee plantations in Ulian and Mengani Villages, Kintamani.
The large coffee processing area stretches along one side of the farming area.
The open expanse for drying coffee, which has a cement floor, is on the back side, adjacent to the green house for drying the harvest. Meanwhile, at the front, a spacious room with a cement floor is flanked by two buildings on the left and right.
He invited me to take a look at his coffee plantation, which looked fresh and was starting to bear fruit. Like most coffee plantations in Kintamani, they are always interspersed with orange plants.
“Coffee farmers here in Ulian are known to be the most diligent in caring for coffee trees. “They are never late in pruning coffee twigs so that the trees are more productive,” said Arca while removing several twig shoots, which he thought only used up soil nutrients.
Indeed, the coffee trees in the farming area look well maintained. The height is ideal for harvesting and maintenance. The leaves and branches of the tree are not too close together.
Coffee farmers in Ulian are really skilled at caring for coffee trees so that they can bear lots of fruit and ensure that enough sunlight can reach the branches and twigs of the trees for maximum photosynthesis.
“I deliberately planted shade trees such as avocado and durian because coffee trees are originally from Ethiopia, so they feel like they grow in the forest.” he said.
The Dadap tree (Erythrina subumbrans) is one of the must-haves on the coffee plantation. Because the roots of this tree have a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria from the air, thus fertilizing the soil.
I Wayan Arca really cares about the fertility condition of his farming soil. He doesn’t want to use chemical fertilizers in his farm field, in order to keep the soil a good habitat for microorganisms.
Soil that is saturated with chemical fertilizers becomes toxic and cannot be planted again. He does not want to pass on poisonous land to future generations.
Because of that, he is diligent in implementing agricultural methods that adopt permaculture. A farming method that keeps the soil friendly for the microorganisms in it.
The quality of coffee from this type of farming method is also much better. The nutrients that produce coffee berries without chemical fertilizers make the coffee taste even more perfect.
He wants to invite farmers in his village to adopt the same agricultural pattern. However, he realized that it was not an easy matter for farmers who were used to using urea fertilizer to switch to farming without fertilizer. He is sure that slowly they will voluntarily do so if it is proven to have a beneficial impact on their economy.
I Wayan Arca invited several farmers to a café in Denpasar. He wanted to show that the price of coffee at the café per cup could be more than IDR 30,000.
“Let them know that if the coffee they produce is good, the price can also be high,” recalled Arca.
Coffee grown on farms without chemical fertilizers is of much better quality and is priced more expensively. Farmers who are starting to realize this fact are gradually adopting chemical fertilizer-free farming.
That’s how I Wayan Arca invited coffee farmers in Ulian Village, Kintamani, to do farming that is environmentally friendly but still brings prosperity.
There are at least 350 hectares of coffee land in the village, owned by 190 families. Nearly 80 percent of their coffee harvest is processed at Arca Kopi.
“Initially, we were only able to produce 1 ton of green beans. “Now we have 80 tons of green beans per year,” he said, describing the long journey of developing specialty coffee in his village.
His success in inviting many farmers to become specialty coffee producers has not stopped him. Now, he is actively exploring coffee varieties that were once a mainstay in Ulian Village. He learned a lot from the senior farmers and old people in his village.
He did not hesitate to create a nursery for the coffee varieties recommended by them.
“The old people really recognized the character of the coffee varieties that had been grown in Ulian. “They know which ones will grow and produce good results and which ones will be lacking,” he said.
USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is one of the varieties that has been proven to grow well in Ulian, and is now Arca’s mainstay.
He dedicated his farm to a testing project for selected coffee varieties. He did not hesitate to provide several columns of his farm area to test and obtain the best varieties.
Because it takes at least 4 to 5 years to know the results, from the seeding process to planting, until the coffee plants can bear fruit consistently.
I Wayan Arca cast his gaze forward. The expanse of his coffee plantation became a line of ideas that he carefully tested. For the sake of improving the quality of Balinese coffee, especially Ulian, Kintamani. Because those who stop will only be left behind by those who continue to move forward with the times.
Follow I Wayan Arca on Instagram @arca_magic_bean
