Felix Soba Meo, Preserving Ngada Coffee Heritage

More than a farmer, patron and processor of Ngada coffee, Felix Soba Meo (49) is trying to maintain the Ngada coffee ecosystem which is increasingly being eroded due to the conversion of coffee lands.

DOKUMEN FELIX SOBA

Felix Soba Meo

The shrinking of the coffee-estate area does not prevent Felix Soba Meo, 48, from cultivating organic Arabica coffee in Ngada regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Along with Nola Wonga farmers’ group, he preserves the ancestral heritage of fragrant Arabica coffee.

At present, the existence of organic Arabica coffee in Ngada is under threat. The coffee-plantation area has shrunk from 8,000 hectares to less than 6,000 ha over the last five years. It is feared the coffee that made the Flores variety, now going global, famous, will go extinct.