Flower, the new icon of Tomohon

Posted on July 9th, 2008 in tourism news flower, tomohon, tomohon flower festival

The Jakarta Post , Tomohon

Education is being flouted for flowers in the North Sulawesi mayoralty of Tomohon — a city with many universities — by its mayor, who wants those with aspirations to be civil servants to consider being flower farmers instead.

The flora has become the official icon for the city — originally famed for its higher education institutions — and is being aggressively promoted by its major, Jefferson Rumajar.

He believes flowers could be used to build job opportunities to boost the welfare of its 86,000-strong population.

Local opinion is that using flowers as the city’s new icon will not necessarily mean Tomohon’s reputation as a "city of education" will be replaced; rather, that both flowers and education can still live side by side and even complement each other.

Tomohon is a new city established in 2003, and was previously one of the districts in the Minahasa regency. Rumajar is Tomohon’s first mayor, chosen through direct election. He was installed as the mayor on Aug. 4, 2005 by acting North Sulawesi Governor Lucky Korah.

Rumajar is confident Tomohon’s location is very suitable for flower cultivation, and wants to turn the city into a major flower producer in Indonesia.

His decision to focus on flower cultivation was based on the fact that nearly 70 percent of the local population depends on agriculture as their source of income, Rumajar said.

He challenges a large number of job seekers in Tomohon to change their way of thinking — by becoming flower farmers instead of vying for sought-after opportunities as civil servants.

"Cultivating flowers is very profitable because farmers can reap approximately Rp 200 million (US$22,200) from each hectare of krisan flowers within three months," Rumajar said. Each flower sells at about Rp 3,000 on the market.

By comparison, he said, planting corn can yield eight tons after approximately the same period. "If each kilogram of corn is valued at Rp 2,000, they can only get Rp 16 million," he said.

"Aside from the suitable climate, we don’t need additional areas as we can utilize unproductive lands, which are estimated to reach about 900 hectares at present," the mayor said.

Tomohon alone has not yet been able to meet the rising demand for flowers in the province, as large amounts have to be shipped from Java. In the future, Tomohon will be able to supply all local needs and export the product to other countries, he said.

To support the plan, Rumajar, joined by some of his administration officials and members of the local legislative council, flew to the Netherlands to investigate how flower cultivation has bloomed there.

Rumajar said his program received a positive response from high-ranking executives of the national airline company Lion Air, which plans to make Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi, a hub for its services.

Lion executives have been very interested in backing up Tomohon’s flower exporting plan as transporting it is cheaper and easier than other commodities, especially fish, Rumajar said.

The Tomohon administration has also prepared a 200-hectare plot of land for a special economic zone for export-oriented purposes, he said,

"Arrangements are being worked out now," he said, adding that the location of the special economic zone would be easily accessible, especially to the airport.

The mayor also said he had approached the management of the Sam Ratulangi airport in Manado about the possible construction of cold storage facilities to maintain the freshness of the flowers before they were transported.

To launch its flower plans, the Tomohon city administration is planning to hold a national flower festival in June next year, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to open it.

The flower festival, to be attended by representatives of the capital of the country’s 33 provinces, will be set up to become an annual event of the mayoralty — to boost both the flower business and tourism in North Sulawesi.