When Manado native Hance Worang first set foot on Bali’s shores, flower arranging was not on his radar.

Green collective:: Sekar Bumi’s gardens feature rare heliconiums, tamarind and lychee trees. J.B. Djwan The trained motor mechanic expected to be up to his shoulders in grease under the hood of a car in the tourist island’s wealthy south; A decade on and he is instead up to his elbows in flowers.

Worang works as a florist for the organic farming collective Sekar Bumi Farm, which specializes in growing organic tropical flowers and rare trees high up in Bali’s hinterlands.

“I started doing this — flower arranging — because there was no work as a mechanic available. This is easier,” chuckles the masculine grease monkey who taught himself the art of flower arranging after starting work on the collective farm.

Sekar Bumi Farm is proving that going organic as a collective group of farmers pays off, to the point where the farm has shops in Ubud and Denpasar, again employing people from outside the village of Buhu in Kerta, Payangan, and supplying flower arrangements and organic fruit and vegetables to some of Bali’s top hotels.

The flowers grown at Sekar Bumi are the result of a massive risk taken by collective head Ketut Subagia, who so believed in his vision “that he drove to Malang and bought all this tropical flower stock. He sold his car to pay for the stock, hired a truck to transport the root stock here and this is the result,” says Kerta village head I Made Gunawan, 40, as he strolls Sekar Bumi’s gardens of rare heliconiums, tamarind and lychee trees that stretch as far as the eye can see. “We are not just growing flowers, we are growing a forest of rare trees as well,” says Gunawan.

Improvements:: Kerta village head I Made Gunawan poses with the organic tropical flowers farmed in his village.J.B. Djwan According to Gunawan, of an area that covers 1,442 hectares in the cool hills of Bali, to date almost 10 percent of local farmers across 136 hectares have converted to mixed organic farming with the collective now enjoying a vastly improved standard of living, with the goal of reaching an international standard in produce and business savvy in the years to come.

“Already we are seeing a much better standard of living for the farmers and the community since going organic,” says Gunawan, who studied agriculture at Udayana University and now heads a community that has a three-pronged approach to conversion to sustainable farming with Sekar Bumi Florist, alternative-energy development and orange gardens.

The key to Sekar Bumi’s success, says Gunawan, is its adherence to good business models.

“First we identified what was needed in Bali, we looked for the niche in the marketplace. We saw a product need in hotels and saw organic agricultural produce such as vegetables, flowers, fruit, coffee, chocolate and of course rice was needed,” says Gunawan of the first steps taken by the village back in 2007.

At that time, just 18 families headed by Subagia made the shift in their farming practices, later joined by a further 15 families.

“We are now expanding into forestry products such as naturally occurring silk, forest silk,” says Gunawan, adding that adding value to their products was another important element of their success.

“That is why we make the flower arrangements. If we sell flower by flower, the income is small, but by making flower arrangements, we add value to our product. The collective becomes the middleman. The farmer’s collective grows the produce and then has a selling agent through Sekar Bumi, which is an extension of the farmer’s collective,” says Gunawan of the collective that now employs 15 people from outside the village due to its consistent development.

“In Bali we have many ceremonies if you are a Hindu, so we have people working here from other religions, so the business continues to run even when there are holy days and Hindus have other obligations. That’s our management system. In this way we can operate at an international level — when there are orders, they are filled regardless of ceremonies,” says Gunawan of an enlightened perspective on doing business in Bali.

As Sekar Bumi expands, the collective is targeting organic produce in supermarkets, again as added value produce, and also opening up the farm for agritourism.

There is a swath cut through the forests surrounding the farm as a road for buses is built to bring in tourists.

“Trees were taken down to get the road in. For this project we need good road access for buses as we are planning on developing agritourism. Travel agents suggested small roads were inadequate. The trees along the roadside will be replanted. We do have 310 students from a Denpasar middle school coming here next week to learn about organic farming and what can be achieved,” explains Gunawan of additional value adding within the Sekar Bumi collective that ensures a living income for its farmers.

“We are building this from the agricultural roots of Bali. If tourism was to collapse tomorrow, we would continue to produce agricultural products to an international standard,” says Gunawan of a collective that is developing farming as a very viable career option.