Sept 17 - Cocoa farmers across Indonesia's main growing island of Sulawesi have started cutting down their ageing cocoa trees in preparation to replant their land with more productive, diseases-resistant baby trees, officials said.
"Farmers are very keen to start the replanting programme. In fact, many more farmers have requested their lands to be covered by the programme," said Lutfi Mukti, head of North Luwu district, one of the key growing districts in South Sulawesi province.
"In our district, farmers have cleared about 300 hectares of lands or about a third of the target for this year."
The replanting is part of a 3-year government-sponsored cocoa programme worth $350 million to boost output to above the 2006 peak of 600,000 tonnes within 4-5 years.
The world's No.3 grower has been suffering low harvests since 2007 due to the spread of a deadly fungal disease, Vascular Streak Dieback (VSD), which attacked trees across Sulawesi.
The government has targeted to replant 20,000 hectares of cocoa land nationwide this year, which will require 20 million baby trees.
The baby trees, a key element of the replanting, are sourced solely from the government-run Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI) based in East Java's town of Jember.
Teguh Wahyudi, a director of ICCRI, told Reuters that at least 2 million baby trees had been shipped to Sulawesi since late August.
"Shipment is behind schedule because we had to wait until local government completed the tender to select breeding firms," Wahyudi told Reuters.
He said the delay will, however, cut the time needed by breeding firms to grow them before planting from 3-4 months to just one month.
Burhanuddin, an official at the provincial office of the agriculture ministry in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, confirmed that the province have received about 1 million baby trees so far. It will need 4.3 million baby trees this year.