Innovations and best practices key to helping farmers’ livelihood in Indonesia

Combining targeted field work and the use of new technology, field facilitators at Barry Callebaut are helping cocoa farmers in #indonesia to improve their sustainable farming practices. This year, we are taking new steps in our quest to continually improve agricultural practices and having better traceability of cocoa beans. Umar, an agronomist born in Sulawesi, has been there from the start. Since 2013, he has worked with hundred other field facilitators and trainers employed by Barry Callebaut in #indonesia to improve the agricultural practices of cocoa farmers. His hope is for more smallholder cocoa farmers in #indonesia to prosper by being more productive. Cocoa farming is the principal income for an estimated 1 million Indonesian families; 500,000 of are in Sulawesi producing 60% of all Indonesia's cocoa. While there is no reliable data on the number of cocoa farmers living under the national poverty line, the rural populations of #indonesia - many of whom are farmers - are relatively poorer than the urban ones. In 2016, the Indonesian government defined the poverty line at a monthly per capita income of IDR 354,386 (approx. USD $26.6).

More information on the press release