Some cashew trees grew in Karto Satiman’s garden. But none of them produced ripe fruit.

“We did not have crops the past two years because of the weather. The heavy rain damaged the flowers of the cashew trees,” the 72-year-old resident of Rejosari village, Jatisrono district, in Central Java’s Wonogiri regency told The Jakarta Post.

He explained in a flat tone. No trace of sadness or bitterness in his voice. The old man did not even look very disappointed with the fact he had lost potential income from cashew nuts, which had become a high value commodity in his district.

His eyes turned bright when he talked about turmeric – a new favorite among local farmers – that would be ready in August. “Turmeric can survive in bad weather. It grows well during the rainy days,” he said.

Karto, a spokesperson for the Sari Bumi farmers group, said farmers in Jatisrono were not too dependent on cashew nuts anymore thanks to turmeric, a commodity introduced in 2005.

During the past six years, the Sari Bumi farmers group has cooperated with PT Deltomed. They supply tons of turmeric to the Wonogiri-based company that has been producing herbal products for 35 years.

Previously, the farmers in the district had not realized that turmeric would grow well on their land. Planting rhizome plants such as turmeric, ginger and temulawak (Curcuma xanthorrhiza) were a tradition in the village. The villagers used to plant in small quantities for family consumption. Sometimes they sold the remainder at the market for additional income.

Karto said people in the village consumed turmeric for cooking and to reduce body odor. The herb was also good for breastfeeding mothers and women who just gave birth, he said.

“We used to plant rhizomes without treatments like preparing the land for cultivation and adding fertilizer because we thought they grew anyway,” he said.

Sari Bumi head Hardianto said farmers were enthusiastic when Deltomed officials offered cooperation after discovering their land was perfect for turmeric.

He said the development of turmeric farming was a good decision because the rhizomes could grow well on unused space under the shade of the many cashew trees in the village.

The farmers received training about how to cultivate the soil in their yards to plant turmeric. They also make organic fertilizer from a mixture of teak leaves and goat and cow manure.

“The production cost is too small to mention because the seeds are accessible as we have planted it for generations and fertilizer material is available all around us,” Hardianto said.

With good treatment and nutrients from fertilizer, turmeric grows like crazy in the area and is of high quality. Farmers will dry the wet turmeric for three days until the water volume reaches 10 percent before selling it to Deltomed or other buyers.

“We try to maintain the quality by applying the right drying method. We dry the sliced turmeric without turning it upside-down to maintain the good color,” Karto said.

The 80 farmers in the village can normally produce 49 tons of wet turmeric a year. After drying, that is seven tons of dry turmeric.

PT Deltomed purchased each kilogram of dry turmeric for Rp 14,000 (US$1.64) last year. Karto said the company would purchase any quantity of the crop. It also let farmers sell the turmeric to other buyers if offered a higher price.

Larto, another farmer, said he initially planted turmeric because he had joined the farmers group, which required members to plant the same plants.

“I am happy now with the decision because the crop can give me additional income,” he said.

The farmers in the group were eager to plant other kinds of herbs in order to generate additional income. Hardianto said they are trying to plant small quantities of some types of ginger as requested by a Japanese company.

He said the village could produce good quality elephant ginger, but they could not sell it to Deltomed because the company only bought red ginger that contained high essential oils and were spicier.

“We tried to plant red ginger but failed because it requires colder temperatures,” Hardianto said, adding that the plant grew better in Kismantoro district in the eastern part of the regency.

Herb farming in the country faces good prospects, but its development remains slow compared to other developing countries.

The Forestry Ministry recorded that in 2005, the European Union imported over 358,000 tons of herbs and spices from developing countries.

It noted that around 60 percent of those imports came from other countries such as China, India, Morocco and Turkey, not Indonesia.

On the other hand, ministry data says that the country is home to 75 percent of the plants in the world. Of that, 940 are types of herbs that grow in Indonesia, or 90 percent of the herbs that grow in Asia.

The ministry reported that farmers only develop 20 to 22 percent of the hundreds of herbs in the country, with the remaining 78 percent taken from the forest.

Jatisrono may be taking baby steps with its turmeric farming, but those steps do count for herb development in the country.

Once its herbal industry develops, the district will make organic herbs its main product along with its delicious cashew nuts.

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