Set Back

Just got word from Jos that ICRAFT, one of our partner NGOs, is pulling out of Aceh Jaya in early January. As a result, they will not be able to fulfill their commitment to help us train the farmers group. This is a set back, but hopefully we will be able to work with one of the local nurseries assisted by ICRAFT to provide this training.  

Training in the Village

Latest word from the field is that the first training with staff from ICRAFT is going to take place in the village this month. The village has already organized a group of more than thirty farmers who want to participate.

Field Trip

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Almost everyone in the village makes their living from agriculture. One of the most popular crops is rubber. The difficulty is that if villagers want high-producing rubber seedlings, they have to purchase expensive ones trucked in from outside the province.

We are partnering with two other organizations: Helping Hands and ICRAFT to help the community develop their own, high yield rubber seedlings using a grafting technique know as occulation.

We began by inviting community members down to the coast to see a new, functioning nursery.


The road was a little tricky...


but we made it down and meet with the cooperative running the nursery.


We were given a tour of the nursery and asked a lot of questions about the grafting process.




In the end, the visit seemed to have created a lot of enthusiasm and reinforced the idea that developing a nursery was doable and could even be profitable.