August in Simpang Jernih: the harvest season begins with great training and healthy trees

Robert’s been helping some of the farmers with some early harvests these past weeks—Aceh Timur has begun the season, which is a long one due to the variation in elevation and temperature on the farms, even though they’re quite close together.   

The rainforest has its own micro-climate and really affects when and how the cocoa ripens.  Speaking of the forest, the monkeys are really at it this year, due in part to the drought that has pushed them out of the forest to look for other food, and finding their absolute favorite (cocoa), the farmers and their families have been run ragged trying to keep them away from the trees.  But look at these babies!  This is what organic fertilization and pesticide can do to a tree’s production in just one year!

Both Pante Kera and Simpang Jernih farmers received their 6^th training in August, under the Local Community Grant from the Embassy of Finland.  (Yay, Finland!)

This time, three trainers were on hand to discuss proper seedling planting, paying special attention to tree placement in relation to shade trees, and how to measure correct distances from shade trees to allow for the cocoa tree’s growth. 

 Farmers still have about 500 trees that were grown in the nursery early this year, and in the coming weeks, in addition to the harvest, they’ll be planting these new trees in the perfect spots for them to be as productive as possible.   

Add to that their grafted branches from superior varieties, and cocoa production should really soar.   

 Robert and the farmers have a harvest chart that tracks production so at the end of this harvest we’ll be able to see what percent increase they realized.  






 I think everyone’s going to be happy!

How to help women cocoa farmes in Aceh? By buying the T-shirt, of course!

Our tiny but ingenious IT department has come up with some great designs that I am sure everyone will want to give as gifts this holiday season.  The nice people at Zazzle allow non-profit organizations to design and sell a wide variety of cause-related items, and we decided to help JMD by offering a few this season.  The entire amount of the profit made by us on the shirt will go directly to JMD to help fund its mobile pest control clinic for cocoa farmers in the eastern districts of Aceh.  If we can get this clinic started we can help up to 4,000 farmers reduce the amount of cocoa they lose to insects, squirrels and monkeys (ah, monkeys) by 40-60%.

Do not worry—we just started dreaming these designs up, so the coffee mugs, notepads and baby onesies will not be far behind!  But in the meantime, how could you live without these T-shirts?  

 You can order the design on lots of styles, and there’s also the “budget” T-shirt for those of us who might be able to buy one or two high-quality shirts but have to go the regular route for the rest of the relatives.

Quick!  Go to http://www.zazzle.com/bbf_jmd and show your support of sustainable livelihoods in Aceh province.