Dr. Surip Mawardi. : The Main Researcher at the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute in Jember, earned a Doctorate degree in Agronomy majoring in plant breeding. His contributions are innumerable and his name is always mentioned with the upmost respect by the coffee farmers who were guided by him.

“Mr. Surip always has time to visit us whenever we call him, just to see with his own eyes the problems that us farmers are facing. It seems that we always hassle him with our problems and we feel awful about it, so we want to give something back, like a tribute or an acknowledgement, but he never wants to accept it. Mr. Surip and the people who work for him always help us voluntarily, and they have really become the beacon of our hopes in this region.”

That was just one of the things I heard about Dr. Surip Mawardi – a Main Reseacher at the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute in Jember, East Java – from several coffee farmers in Bondowoso.

Indeed, visiting the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI) is never complete without paying respect to Surip Mawardi, but I also understood how busy his schedule was, as he always travels to different parts of Indonesia and also overseas. So of course, I was lucky to be able to see him there, when he suddenly greeted me warmly and I was right away invited to his office while enjoying ICCRI’s best coffee. He was still the same man I met before – passionate when talking about  coffee and all its challenges, yet always had the optimism in finding ways to promote the farmers’ coffee to the customers overseas.

This is the second time I’ve written an article about Surip and his contributions to the Indonesian coffee landscape that everyone in the coffee business should know. Surip has dedicated half of his life to improve the quality of Indonesian coffee through many research projects that he has done with the cub scientists in the century old research institute.

During that somewhat brief reunion, Surip explained about the bright prospect of Preanger coffee from West Java, in which its progress must be monitored by ICCRI and supported by the local government. He also showed me a Dutch book about the history of West Java’s coffee plantation that, among the many topics in it, discussed the amount of soil available for coffee plantation in the region. The book explained that the coffee plantation in Sukabumi used to expand up to nine thousand hectares – the biggest in West Java. It was then followed by Cianjur (7900 hectares), Cicalengka (1500 hectares), Sumedang (600 hectares) and Bandung (400 hectares), until it was converted by the then Dutch colonial government into a tea plantation. It was, however, a very short talk with Surip, because I had to excuse myself to go back to class and continue my study of cultivating and processing coffee.

Of course, it’s not easy to be Surip Mawardi, who always has to be on the field, as well as going from one place to another, either in Indonesia or other countries, while at the same time, dedicating all his capability for the growth of Indonesian coffee, along with the team of researchers at ICCRI.

So if you do have the chance to meet him someday, it’s not an overstatement to express your gratitute to him, as he is not only a man who knows his stuff in and out but he also possessed an undeniable integrity. Surip is an asset to us all; a man whose name must be mentioned with the upmost respect, especially by the coffee farmers.

Integritas adalah Surip Mawardi

“Pak Surip selalu menyempatkan datang bila kami telepon untuk melihat secara langsung kendala yang dihadapi para petani. Kadang kami merasa tidak enak dan ingin memberikan sedikit tanda penghargaan, tapi beliau tak pernah mau menerimanya. Bapak yang satu ini beserta jajaran di bawahnya selalu bekerja tanpa pamrih dan benar-benar menjadi tumpuan harapan para petani kecil di daerah ini.” Itu sekelumit perbincangan saya saat menemui beberapa kelompok tani kopi rakyat di Bondowoso tentang kesan mereka tentang DR. Surip Mawardi, seorang Peneliti Utama di Pusat Penelitian Kopi dan Kakao, Jember, Jawa Timur.

Memang benar, tak lengkap bila kunjungan ke Puslit tanpa sowan dengan seorang Surip Mawardi , tapi saya juga maklum akan jadwalnya yang selalu padat bepergian ke berbagai daerah di Indonesia dan luar negeri. Jadi tentu sebuah keberuntungan bisa menemui lagi beliau yang tiba-tiba menyapa dengan hangat dan langsung  mengajak saya berbincang di kantornya sambil menikmati sajian kopi unggulan Puslit. Tetap penuh semangat saat berbicara tentang kopi dan berbagai permasalahannya, tapi tetap dengan nada optimis  dan selalu mencari cara kreatif untuk mempromosikan hasil kopi petani kepada para pembeli dari luar negeri.

Ini kedua kalinya saya mengangkat keberadaan Surip yang kiprahnya  begitu penting dalam lansekap kopi di tanah air dan harus diketahui oleh siapapun yang berkecimpung dalam dunia ini  baik dari hulu maupun di hilir. Surip telah mendedikasikan separuh hidupnya untuk perbaikan mutu produksi kopi Indonesia  melalui berbagai projek penelitian yang beliau lakukan beserta para ilmuwan muda di lembaga penelitian yang sudah berusia satu abad ini.

Dalam pertemuan yang singat tadi, Surip menceritakan tentang potensi kopi Preanger di Jawa Barat, namun tetap dalam perkembangannya harus dikawal oleh Puslit dan dukungan pemerintah setempat. Ia juga memperlihatkan sebuah buku tentang sejarah perkebunan kopi di Jawa Barat dalam bahasa Belanda yang salah satunya tentang luas perkebunan kopi. Di situ disebutkan bahwa daerah seperti Sukabumi dulunya mempunyai area perkebunan sebesar 9 ribu hektar, terbesar di Jawa Barat. Disusul oleh Cianjur (7.9 ribu ha), Cicalengka (1.500 ha), Sumedang (600 ha), dan Bandung (400 ha), sebelum akhirnya dikonversi oleh pemerintah kolonial Belanda menjadi tanaman teh. Ini hanya perbicangan singkat karena saya harus tahu diri untuk segera pamit dan kembali masuk kelas belajar Budidaya dan Pengolahan Kopi.

Tidak mudah menjadi Surip yang selalu harus berada di lapangan dan berbagai tempat baik dalam maupun luar negeri seraya  mencurahkan segenap kemampuannya demi kemajuan kopi Indonesia bersama jajaran peneliti lainnya di Puslit.  Jadi bila berkesempatan bertemu dengan Surip, tak berlebihan bila Anda ucapkan terima kasih kepadanya, seorang yang bukan hanya punya kualifikasi keilmuan mumpuni, tapi juga integritas yang tak diragukan. Surip adalah aset kita bersama yang namanya  selalu diucapkan dengan penuh rasa hormat khususnya oleh para petani kopi.

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