English

Sahani

SAHANI’s development is divided into 5 stages:

1. SAHANI in 1997, first established.

2. SAHANI in 1998, focused on agricultural products.

3. SAHANI in 1999, focused on introducing Organic and Fairtrade products to the Yogyakarta community. Held the OCM (Organic Culture Movement) event.

4. SAHANI in 2001, SAHANI took the form of a shared business.

SAHANI pada tahun 2004, SAHANI took the form of a cooperative.

SAHANI in 1997, first establishment.

Background and Motivation of SAHANI’s Development.

The SAHANI store was founded in 1997 in Yogyakarta. SAHANI was founded by several NGO’s in Yogyakarta and Central Java, who were part of the Fair Trade Community Consortium (FTCC). Sahani was established to help with marketing for small industries and small organic farmers who were partners in the FTCC. SAHANI was also established with the hope to unite small industries and small organic farmers in the market, so that in unity they could have greater bargaining rights.

Within the organization, SAHANI introduced an alternative model of trade that is more in favor of small industries and small organic farmers, called Fair Trade. Other than concern for the fate of farmers, SAHANI is also concerned with the condition of the environment, especially agricultural land. Organic Farming is the most appropriate solution.

Organization of Vision and Mission for Organic Farming

At the time, SAHANI’s technical support was more focused on small organic farmers, while the support for small industries is handled by other organizations.

SAHANI’s Vision

Sahani cares and is committed to helping and working together with the small organic farmers in SAHANI’s collective, both men and women. SAHANI battles against unfair trade that has caused an imbalance in access to resources, capital, markets, and information and technology to arise, to improve the prosperity and life of small organic farmers.

SAHANI’s Mission

a. To apply Fair Trade principles to trade arrangements for organic products

SAHANI also fights against trade that causes exploitation of workers, primarily women and child workers, as well as exploitation of natural resources and the environment, by socializing and applying Fair Trade models.

Fair Trade’s values include:

Creation of community

Collective, long term business

Protecting and improving the prosperity of producers/small farmers

Building a collective model of trade through dialogue of principles, transparacy, and respect.

Suitable work conditions

Gender equality

Protecting children from exploitation in the production process

Environmentally friendly production process

Indiferential to religion, ethnicity, and race.

b. Providing technical assistance and supporting organic farming.

It is hoped that after farmers apply organic principles, then their dependence of chemical inputs and factory-made products in the production process will not happen again. Farmers can be more self-sufficient and attain greater prosperity by using animal fertilizer, seed selection, and natural pesticides.

To achieve this, in 1999 an event was held called Organic Culture Movement (OCM). The OCM involved various sectors of society. These included: artists, cultural observers, university students, farmers, community members, reporters/mass media, consumers, and others. The objectives of the activities included:

To socialize organic and fair trade products

To educate society about organic Farming and fair trade

To start a mass media campaign about organic farming and fair trade.

To increase the number of sellers

To increase SAHANI’s market points

SAHANI in 2004, as a Cooperative.

As time went on, in 2004 a General Member Meeting was held, and included on its agenda was to determine the future shape of SAHANI. Should it be an Organization, Limited Company, Private Company, Association, or Cooperation?

Objectives of this choice included:

SAHANI to be an official/legal corporate body.

To have a clear organizational form.

Members of SAHANI are clarified.

To have a better trade arrangement mechanism.

For this discussion, SAHANI also invited a business consultant, with the hope that she could give a clearer picture about each type of business listed above. This included explaining benefits and disadvantages, as well as making a recommendation for which form was most appropriate for SAHANI. The group decided that SAHANI should take the form of a Cooperative.

Developement of the Organic Market

Process of agricultural cultivation

Principles and standards or organic farming cultivation applied by SAHANI.

Sahani’s farmers originated from several regions that have various unique qualities, especially in terms of their models of organic cultivation. For this reason, organic principles and standards are only agree upon general qualities, including:

Not using synthetic chemical inputs in the cultivation/production process.

To primarily use local seeds, and no transgenic seeds allowed.

To use organic materials available around the land.

If affected by pests, no use of chemical pesticides is allowed (only natural, environmental friendly pesticides are allowed).

If using fertilizer and organic pesticide obtained from outside the group, the substances used to make the fertilizer and pesticide must be clarified (is it mixed with synthetic chemical material?)

SAHANI’s future plans included working with BioCert, primarily for an Internal Control System, so that the model of cultivation used by farmers in SAHANI matches BioCert’s standards.

Types of organic products cultivated by the farmers.

Farmers in the SAHANI collective plant rice using various rotation paterns, such as rice-rice-soybeans, rice-rice-vegetable, and other variations. As a result, a variation of products are cultivated by SAHANI’s farmers, including rice, vegetables, fruit, soybean, salted egg, free-range eggs, and other products.

SAHANI has experienced an increase in the availability of types of products for consumers. At the begining, SAHANI only sold rice, but this had many weaknesses:

The quality, continuity, and quantity of rice products are quite unstable. As a result, only relying on rice to keep customers faithful can be difficult.

If SAHANI only relys on one item, and if that item suffers a drop in market price or a rise in price at the farmer’s level, then the supply from the farmers and the sales to consumers will be influenced.

If SAHANI only relys on rice to expand their market or increase their consumers for the long term, SAHANI will be ineffective, since interaction between SAHANI and their consumers will happen rarely, only once or twice a month. But the more types of products SAHANI has, the more interaction with consumers, therefore and SAHANI will always be in consumers’ hearts.

At the beginning, the type and total of inputs used in organic farming

Most of SAHANI’s farmers who use inputs for plants/earth use organic materials found in the environment around their home. If a farmer must bring in organic fertilizer or seeds from outside of there are, usually they find information about the organic purity of the fertilizer or seeds before they are used. As another option, they can barter with another SAHANI farmer group.

Among the farmers, the type of inputs and their use is not the same. Some farmers make compost from organic materials. Other farmers have livestock that provide compost.

Rotation for planting organic products

Rice-rice-soybean

Rice-soybean-soybean

Integrated system of fertilizing and controlling pests

For fertilizer that is not yet ready, spray it once a week. When using fertilizer, farmers always prioritize the raw material that is already available, which can be animal waste, urine, green compost, and others.

For controlling pests, farmers have several tactics that can break the cycle of pests. Several different methods can be used, including:

Using natural predators

Plant intercropping or rotation

Using plant-based pesticide

Direct observation

Quality of organic products: water content, broken grains.

To find the water content of rice, farmers use a method of biting the unhulled grain. If it feels dry, then the grain is ready to process. If there are too many broken grains, then it must be sifted again. The percentage of broken rice tolerated is 4%. This is part of SAHANI’s Work Agreement.

Product price policy

Components and costs that are counted

Components and costs can be seen in the attached Business Analysis

Determining the basic price and sale price to consumers

This must be done collectively and with transparency. The hope is for farmers to get a fair price.

How does SAHANI conduct quality control?

SAHANI is starting to use an Internal Control Sysytem (ICS), with the BioCert program. This ICS program helps SAHANI ensure the quality of farmers’ products. Until now SAHANI has only believed in representatives from the farming groups that their products were organic. But now, for the future, to fulfill consumer demands and to side with serious organic farmers, ICS will greatly help in matters of quality control.

Does SAHANI also control farmers’ land?

SAHANI asks for help from young farmers who want extra tasks such as helping manage the land of other farmer friends. From the results of this monitoring, SAHANI obtains reports about the organicness, contamination, pollution around the land, and other aspects.

How is the packaging done? What is the size of SAHANI’s sale packages?

Packaging of SAHANI’s rice products is done at the SAHANI store. After the rice arrives we look at the request list; in the past we have done packaging in 25 kg, 5 kg, 2 kg, and 1 kg sizes. Or SAHANI can also fulfill specific orders requesting by consumers.

Distribution equipment and tools

SAHANI uses the following tools to distribute products to consumers:

For reachable/in-city consumers, SAHANI uses a motorbike

For farther/outside of city consumers, SAHANI uses a shipping service.

Now SAHANI has also developed non-rice products, such as vegetables, fruit, eggs, sweet soy sauce, honey, and other things produced by SAHANI’s farmers.

At the beginning of 1997 the total number SAHANI’s products was very restricted. Later, organic cultivation methods became better developed as more farmers became more aware of the negative impact of conventional farming using synthetic chemicals. This is also due to the hard work or friends of NGOs working to socialize and support organic and environmentally friendly cultivation methods. Another reason is the high price in chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Organic farming is an alternative method of cultivation that is more advantageous to small-scale farmers and is environmentally friendly. Even though at first production yeilds go down, after the soil is returned to a healthy state, the yeilds will be better. In Jogja, many farmers have gone organic, either because their own awareness, or because they are following their friends have have alreay been successful from organic farming.

SAHANI’s organization and organic marketing institution

Working mechanism and internal structure

This organization works 7 days a week (Monday-Sunday).

The SAHANI store is open from 9 am to 5 pm, but for delivery oders until they are finished. SAHANI has an ordering service available by telephone, SMS, and email. SAHANI’s cellular phone is available 24 hours a day.

Organization policies and rules

This organization uses fair trade policies to help market the products of organic farmers. This organization only sells products owned by members, with priority to small-scale farmers.

System of administration and financing

For administration, the manager recaps the daily sales, and each week the treasurer does a check of administration sales and finanacing. The treasurer makes a finanacial report a minimum of once a month to the manager, every 3 months to the supervisor, and once a year to the cooperative members.

Respondants of SAHANI’s questionaire:

More women than men.

Concern for the fate of small-scale farmers.

Needs include health.

Have buying power, social status middle class and above.

Desire to protect the environment.

Educated.

Compiled by: Imam - SAHANI