Organic cocoa farming in Indonesia: constraints and development strategies

The cocoa plantation largely contributes to the Indonesian agricultural economy; however, since 2016, the performance of cocoa production in Indonesia has decreased substantially. This study aims to analyze the farmers’ perception of organic farming system constraints and develop strategies for developing cocoa organic farming systems based on local capacity. This research was conducted in four provinces in Indonesia as follows: East Java, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, and West Sulawesi. Data collection was carried out by the survey method. Seven farmer groups were selected purposively, three in East Java and one in three provinces in Sulawesi respectively. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed, 232 respondents were contributed to respond to the questionnaire. The result indicated several cocoa farming constraints. These include pest control, low productivity, and marketing. Based on strength-weakness-opportunity-threat analysis, this study indicated the choice of aggressive maintenance strategy. Therefore, the recommended strategy choices included expanding land using organic farming to produce large quantities of products for export; strengthening farmer institutions to collaborate with industry and research institutions; and improving the implementation of the cocoa organic farming system in the field to fulfill community demand for healthy organic products.