Fredik Baitanu had an idea why his vegetable crops were wilting and underperforming season after season. The clay-textured, grayish-white earth on his farm in Netpala village was a clear sign of poor nutrient content — quality fertilizer, he believed, was the answer. But he could not always afford it.
Like many farmers in South Central Timor Regency, Fredik relied on synthetic fertilizer when the budget allowed. It helped in the short term, but the cost was recurring, and the long-term damage to soil health was real. When Land4Lives introduced organic fertilizer training in Netpala as part of its Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) approach, Fredik was among the first to join. It was his first exposure to sustainable farming practices. But years of experience made him cautious. "Can this actually work?" — was the question he carried into the training.
Organic fertilizer works differently from synthetic alternatives. Instead of industrially processed chemicals, it relies on the decomposition of natural materials, such as animal waste and agricultural byproducts, to restore soil nutrients. In Netpala, those materials were already everywhere: gamal and calliandra leaves, corn stalks, lamtoro, wild sunflower leaves, banana stems, and kirinyuh — plants often dismissed as weeds. Making the fertilizer takes time and consistency. As the weeks passed, most of Fredik's group members stopped showing up to Land4Lives training and mentoring sessions. Fredik stayed. He was curious whether it would work.
The results proved him right. Soil on his farm turned darker and looser — visible signs of improving nutrient content. Green beans that previously yielded a maximum of seven harvests now yielded up to 20. Cabbages and carrots grew noticeably larger.
Fredik's results did not go unnoticed. A fellow farmer, Martedalasa, asked to try his fertilizer on her own plot. Her cabbages grew so large they became a local sensation. BUMDesa Netpala — the village-owned enterprise — then applied Fredik's organic fertilizer across one hectare of mixed vegetable crops and saw productivity increase. Group members who had dropped out began returning, motivated by concrete results they could see with their own eyes.
But Fredik's interest in organic fertilizer extended beyond his own fields. He saw a business opportunity. Working with his learning group, he aimed to scale up production to meet growing village demand. Land4Lives re-engaged at this stage, this time through its enterprise development support. The group received training and mentoring to transition from an informal learning group into a structured business entity. With Land4Lives facilitation, the group registered as a formal business and branded their product "Netpala Organik." Land4Lives also helped arrange nutrient content testing to verify product quality and connected the group to initial markets through BUMDesa Netpala and agricultural supply stores in Soe — where Fredik personally delivers solid and liquid organic fertilizer orders.
Demand has since expanded significantly. The District Office for Food Crops, Horticulture, and Plantations of South Central Timor Regency has placed an initial order of 2 tonnes of solid organic fertilizer and around 4.000 litres of liquid organic fertilizer for use in their demonstration plots — procurement already allocated in the 2026 district budget, to be realized by year-end. Demand also continues to grow from 18 villages across North Mollo Sub-district. The Head of North Mollo Sub-district issued a formal circular encouraging villages to shift away from synthetic fertilizer. The Village Community Empowerment Office supported reallocating village funds – previously earmarked for synthetic fertilizer – toward organic fertilizer for village-managed land and farmer group needs. The South Central Timor Regency Regional Legislature contributed a leaf-shredding machine to the group, further increasing production capacity.
The impacts extend beyond fertilizer sales. Fredik's vegetable produce now reaches wholesale traders across South Central Timor Regency, exporters supplying Timor-Leste, and supply partners for Indonesia's national Free Nutritious Meals (Makan Bergizi Gratis / MBG) program — each channel adding income and expanding market access for participating farmers. The MBG partnership has also created an unexpected circular economy loop: organic kitchen waste from MBG operations feeds back as raw material into Netpala Organik's fertilizer production, keeping local resources within the local system.
Agronomically, the shift to organic fertilizer carries significance beyond productivity gains. Land4Lives promotes this practice under its CSA framework as a means of improving soil structure and water retention. Both are essential for building landscape resilience against droughts and floods increasingly affecting the region. Reducing dependence on synthetic inputs also protects the long-term productive base that smallholder livelihoods rely on. Fredik shows other farmers how to make organic fertilizer.
Fredik's story is not isolated. In Cabbeng Village, Bone Regency, South Sulawesi, a farmer named Ansar has independently been developing guano fertilizer—fermented bat droppings sourced from caves near his village, mixed with livestock urine, molasses, and sulfur water. Like Fredik, Ansar recognized the productive potential of organic inputs already available in his immediate environment. Land4Lives is supporting him to develop this into one of Cabbeng's flagship agricultural products. A similar pattern is emerging in Kepayang Village, South Sumatra, where acidic soil near the Lalan River has long limited agricultural productivity. Through Land4Lives CSA training, farmers have begun converting empty oil palm bunches – a waste product from local palm oil processing – into organic compost. The material, known locally as tandan kosong or tangkos, improves soil structure, helps retain moisture during dry spells, and performs well in the acidic conditions that synthetic fertilizers struggle to address. One farmer, Sena, noted that the chili plants she had failed to grow despite repeated fertilizer applications finally thrived once she mixed tangkos into her growing medium. Taken together, these cases reflect a consistent pattern across the project landscape: when farmers are supported to see locally available organic resources as productive assets, more resilient and sustainable livelihoods may follow.
Today, Fredik passes on what he has learned. Through the Climate-Smart Agriculture Demonstration Sites (Tapak Percontohan Pertanian Cerdas Iklim/TP2CI) – learning hubs established by Land4Lives to enable replication and scale-up of best practices across pilot villages – his farm has become a place others come to study. Visitors to the TP2CI Mollo Utara site learn how to make organic fertilizer and plant-based pesticides, and how to apply them. Fellow farmers, students, journalists, and representatives from the UN Environment Programme have all made the trip.
