Verstegen participates in the 'aGROWforests' project

Verstegen is participating in the 'aGROWforests' project, which is working in Indonesia to transform traditional pepper cultivation to prepare for the challenges of climate change and enable farmers to earn a secure income.

The aGROWforest project

Europe and the United States are the world's largest importers of pepper. An average of around 80,000 tons are imported into the European continent annually. An average of 115,000 tons are imported annually, and imports are expected to rise. Vietnam, Brazil, and Indonesia are the largest pepper-producing countries, and Verstegen Spices & Sauces has been trading Indonesian pepper for over 130 years. To ensure the future of this trade, Verstegen, in collaboration with the company PT CAN and the Dutch NGO Fairfood , launched the 'aGROWforests' project, which has been part of the Initiative for Climate Smart Supply Chains (I4C) since December 2022. "The main goal of the 'aGROWforests' project is to support farmers in more sustainable pepper production," says Yayang Vionita, an agronomist at Verstegen. This is urgently needed because if the current trend in pepper production continues, there will soon be insufficient pepper.

Troubles at the pepper farmers

Climate change is a crucial problem, but not the only one. One of the most serious challenges is that farmers can no longer earn enough from pepper to make a living. "Pepper prices have fallen dramatically in recent years," says Josje Spierings, project manager at Fairfood. At the same time, production is labor-intensive and expensive. Many farmers are therefore switching to more profitable crops like palm or rubber trees. To make cultivation somewhat profitable, most pepper farmers cultivate monocultures. However, this has many disadvantages.

The biggest problem is biodiversity loss, because monocultures cultivate only one plant species, reducing the variety of plants and animals in the area. Monocultures can lead to soil degradation—and this has consequences. Yayang Vionita explains the effects: "If soil quality decreases, the source of nutrients for plants to grow and develop will also decrease, which can lead to lower productivity." As a result, farmers have to overfertilize their soil. Furthermore, diseases spread more quickly where only one plant species is grown. Pathogens quickly spread to surrounding fields and farms. This can lead to complete crop failures, leading farmers to use large amounts of chemical pesticides as a precaution. They are then constantly exposed to these pesticides in their daily lives. Many suffer from lung diseases or have already suffered permanent lung damage.

Add to that climate change, with its extreme weather conditions. Experts estimate that heavy and prolonged rainfall will destroy up to 50 percent of pepper harvests in the future. The extreme humidity leads to stem rot and other diseases that destroy the pepper plants. Increasingly intense sunlight, leading to longer dry periods, also stresses the plants and makes them more susceptible to disease. This makes it increasingly difficult for farmers to maintain their livelihoods.

Solution Approaches: Agroforestry and Transparency

"The 'aGROWforests' project aims to increase pepper production and income while simultaneously adapting the agricultural system to climate change," says Yayang Vionita, outlining the vision of the I4C partners. The means to achieve this: agroforestry . Pepper bushes are combined with various tree species and other plants that interact with each other, which subsequently reduces stress on the pepper plants and improves soil quality. The result is better yields. Moreover, water is not simply drained away but absorbed, making the pepper more resilient to droughts and long dry periods.

To prepare pepper farmers for the restructuring of their farms, the project offers training to participants. "Farmers can learn and gradually implement regenerative agriculture and agroforestry on their farms," ​​Vionita explains. Farmers are invited to observe the procedures, apply the new methods in the field themselves, and discuss them in small groups. If they have questions, farmers can consult directly with experts in so-called "Spice Hubs." They advise them on introducing agroforestry to their farms or on pepper production in general. To ensure a successful transition to the new agricultural methods, the project monitors the process for the first six months.

Moreover, aGROWforests operates under the motto "farm-to-fork traceability," meaning that peppers are tracked from cultivation to the consumer. Josje Spierings explains the goal: "By tracing the supply chain, we show where the peppers come from, which regenerative farming practices have been applied, and what price farmers receive for their peppers." Traceability creates transparency in the supply chain—which benefits everyone. This includes at least 2,300 farmers and their families and households who benefit from the aGROWforest project.

The 'aGROWforests' project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as part of the Initiative 4 Climate Smart Supply Chains and is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

This article has been translated into Dutch. The original article is "aGROWforests for Sustainable Spices in Indonesia" at www.nachhaltige-agrarlieferketten.org .