Halmahera, the land of Sustainable Development

Halmahera is an island located in the west side of the Pacific Ocean, south of the Philippine Islands. Halmahera is part of the Indonesian Archipelago; it forms part of the Maluku Islands and is part of the Ternate Kingdom.

Inhabitants in the island are a few, about 10 people per sq. Kilometer. The island is virgin, with a rich soil in 80% of its 17,780 Sq Kms. area. Mostly empty and fertile land, fit for any agricultural development.

The newly formed company (SPC) has acquired more than 300,000 hectares (750,000 Acres) of land in the island in different locations, which can be used for organic Agriculture and livestock breeding, for the hospitality and tourist sector, and to create a Sea port, Agricultural packing houses, warehouses, and light weight agribusiness and clean manufacturing. The land will be offered for sale or lease to producers, investors, institutions large and small, and retirees under conditions of the establishment of plantations or estates under organic. The condition is that only investor accepts to conduct sustainable development, abide by the rules, and submit to Indonesian law. This implies that agricultural land needs to be planted as organic produce and no chemicals may be used for any purpose.

This is not part of Land Grabs cited in http://farmlandgrab.org/9100 , although large lot sizes of 10,000, 30,000 and 50,000 hectares will be sold. The land mostly uninhabited, virgin, with grassland, is being offered to Indonesians, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Saudi Arabians, and other nationalities that need to grow crops, diversify their food production to ensure their food security, or to grow produce that will be sold in export markets for a profit. After all, the planet and its 6.7 billion people, need ever expanding food production.

For instance, Japanese buyers of organic crops that today go every year to different countries to acquire agricultural products will now be able to plant in Halmahera, near Japan, the organic produce they need. Ultimately, this would result in cheaper and more controlled output than going out to the open market to far away countries to buy the produce that Japan needs.

The company has already seen the possibility of allocating land to all uses, including the location of Compost centers that would take-in all the agricultural waste and process it, to return compost, rich in micro organisms, nitrogen and potassium. For this, the company will accept crops which produce a great deal of waste like corn and wheat; include Jatropha plantations which produce a fruit rich in nitrogen and potassium, and allocate land for livestock production to include bovine, porcine, sheep and chicken farming to generate the manure the compost requires. The aerobic aeration used in producing compost should reduce the methane generated by the decomposition process, and the cultivation of trees and crops should help to reduce the CO2 emissions. This will make the island rich in carbon generated credits.

However, some of the activities conducted by local people are non-sustainable activities and practices, like fishing, mining, burning agricultural waste and using combustion engines and fossil fuels. The company acknowledges that this is a challenge and needs to create induction material to modify their habits to those more sustainable to all.

PLN is currently the electricity supplier for the island. The company acknowledges that PLN is using fossil fuels and thus in non-sustainable. However, for the short run and until the company can organize cleaner, and renewable energy, it will use PLN electrical supply. Nevertheless, the company has already begun to explore the creation of the Home Power Generator based on the sun, in accordance to the following article: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1276374/solar_powered_generator_for_homes_.html?singlepage=true&cat=3

Additionally, in some parts of the island, there is enough wind to move small wind turbines for the specific application. Other energy applications will be Outdoor lights and water pumps base on solar photovoltaic panels.

Halmahera has plenty of water. Nevertheless, pluvial recovery and deep water extraction will be located well above the agricultural centers to store water and supply it during the dry season.

The Company CEO Harianto Widjaja is happy so far with the sustainable development accomplishments. The company is going full blast to offer and implement the Teak Wood Plantation Business, making it accessible to Indonesians and foreigners. Investors or producers would be ably to acquire land for teak plantations under 3 investment scenarios. The company web sites are also in the process of being developed to better inform the public of the investment possibilities in Halmahera, an Indonesian sustainable development project.

There is a potential investor talking about planting Mulberry Trees. The Mulberry trees would provide the food the silk worms require. He believes Halmahera could be the next silk capital in the world, and only requires several hundred hectares planted with Mulberry trees.

Other land uses for investors/producers is as follows:

Long Term Business:

• Teak wood, rubbers trees
• Orchards: Avocado, Mango, Nutmeg, Jatropha, Orange, Limes, Clove, etc.
• Livestock: Bovine, Porcine, Sheep, Chicken farms
• Fish Farms: (Deep sea fish farms)
• Hospitality Sector: Marina development, Hotels, restaurants, parks, scuba diving, Deeps sea fishing, Golf, etc.
• Compost Production

Short Term Business:

• Grain Estates: Corn, Wheat, Sorghum, Soya Beans, Sesame, Rice, etc.
• Vegetables: Cucumber, Tomatoes, Onions, Cassava or Singkong, Stevia, etc.

Company web sites will soon be launch. Please check in this article regularly for updates