Agroforestry Pepper Production

Bangka, an island located in Sumatra, Indonesia, was one of world’s biggest producer of white pepper.

But today it’s mostly known for its tin mines.

These mines have polluted the water supply leading to serious health issues for the people and to agricultural land to be unusable.

Because of the declining fertility, many of the pepper farms have been transformed into rubber or palm oil farms. Or just abandoned all together, with people moving to work in tin mining instead.

Verstegen Spices & Sauces B.V., a Dutch spice company, is funding a different model, one that’s built on regenerative agriculture.

Together with reNature and a local Indonesian partner, they’ve built an agroforestry system to produce pepper on degraded land.

Pepper grows as a vine, so the whole system also integrates others trees for the vines to grow on, provide bio mass to feed the soil, mixed with trees that can be harvested for timber and all kinds of fruits like banana.

That has a number of advantages:

• Re-build soil fertility
• Provide sustainable jobs (healthy, meaningful work)
• Provide healthy, local food

The goal of this small project (1.2 hectares) is to show that this can be an alternative model for the rest of the island, which literally is sick of the tin mining.