Coffee; between Its Heritage and Dilemma

A couple of years ago, coffee was the ultimate commodity that supported the economy in Buleleng, Northern region of Bali. Since the coffee was planted in the Dutch colonial era, this commodity is still maintained by local farmers until today. Farmers through their indigenous knowledge and skills, successfully produced tons of coffee beans every year. Along with those results, villagers felt confident and content with the harvest of the land and decide to expand their lands to gain more coffee. Their heritage has made members of the coffee farming community appreciatively aware and gratefully responsible for the natural resources that have been valuable to them. The above was a success story that once was experienced by the farmers around the 1980’s until the 1990’s. A time when the economic coffee achievement created and brought beneficial impact to people’s lives. It was a moment when farmers’ dedication to coffee generated significant value-added to price. As a result of the increase in price, people could afford things for their living such as education and health. Also, there was the economic multiplier effect, as many jobs were created, the unemployment decreased and basic needs were fulfilled. However, as time goes by no one knows what will be the destiny of these coffee lands. Will the coffee move forward or fall backward? And will the people stay on track as coffee farmers? Or do they plan to leave their current farming jobs to obtain other better occupations? Apart from the worthy heritage and the great success, problems arise as the years change. The moment comes when today’s generation figures out not to rely much on the annual coffee harvest. The yearly income is not able to guarantee the sustainability of the farmers’ lives. Therefore, the stagnancy of farmers’ income consequently encourages the to move to another direction which is having secure jobs in the city. The reason is logic, farmers prevent bad things happen to coffee prices. When commodity prices shattered, due to the economic collapse following the shrinking prices of real estate/property (the subprime mortgage crisis of the 2007–2008), a fluctuating coffee price resulted in uncontrollable conditions that affected farmers’ purchasing power. This situation is an alert to find other revenue streams that could become alternatives, not to depend too much on the coffee farming lands. Also, people’s mindset about permanent jobs still matters in society. The mindset leads people to build a perception of someone’s superior status in the social hierarchy by having a paid monthly jobs in the city. Today, sitting in the office with some kind of intellectual tasks to do is worth more appreciation by people compared to digging or manually maintaining the coffee lands as the local farmers do. While those same intellectuals forget that, they would have to drink the coffee grown by these same hard working farmers.