La Esmeralda: Regenerative Specialty Organic Coffee Farm
La Esmeralda, farm in the Municipality of Circasia is located at 1400 meters above sea level. Approximately 10 kilometers from the capital of the department. We have been working in this area for about 9 years with different varietal of coffee, a different coffee growing model.”
Previously on this farm 30 years of continuity in the hands of Felipe’s father-in-law, there was a conventional coffee crop, according to the guidelines of the federation.
Since they started with a new project, the first thing they did was to eradicate the coffee plantation and start from scratch with an “agroforestry” system in which they basically have shady transitional type:
Higuerillas (shrub plant, castor bean) and Musáceas (banana) especially plantain and banana and also have some final shady with forest trees mainly trees in the area that are excellent for nitrogen fixation such as Guamos is a process that has always been working without chemical synthesis products, everything is an organic agriculture process, initially it is a slow moment, it is something very difficult, because the trees in this transition are susceptible, practically to all kinds of pests, but once biodiversity begins to enter, the banana grows , the castor grows, and the forest trees are also growing, those of the shade.