Soil Health and Biodiversity on a Costa Rican Coffee Farm

Costa Rica is home to an incredible amount of natural biodiversity. But it’s also an ideal spot to grow some of the world’s favorite crops, like coffee. How can farmers conserve biodiversity while still meeting global demand for coffee?

Today we hear Mariano, an agronomist and coffee producer from Costa Rica, and Javier Peris from Syngenta, about the dynamic relationship between agriculture and biodiversity.

 ”When you plant a coffee, you spend. 20, 25, 30 years or more with the coffee plant. So that allows you to be part of the ecosystem for all those years. So it's easy to think (in terms of) long term, relationships with the local ecosystems. For example, conservation soil techniques is one of the things that we are doing, and maybe is the main technique or strategy to increase biodiversity and resilience in the local ecosystem that you are producing coffee.” - Mariano, Costa Rican Coffee Farmer

Mariano is an agronomist whose family has grown coffee in Costa Rica for almost a hundred years. In the past decade, they’ve really focused on transitioning to more regenerative practices. He explains how they’ve moved from conventional coffee farming methods to more ecologically-conscious solutions, and what this means for his business and his soil health.

Alongside Mariano, you’ll hear from Javier Peris, a biologist at Syngenta. Javier has worked with Syngenta for the past ten years, mostly in research and development, but he has recently transition to a new role in sustainability where he is a nature specialist. He describes Syngenta’s “Living Grow” program which  promotes biodiversity and soil health in agricultural ecosystems while maintaining agricultural productivity.

This Week on Soil Sense:

• Meet Mariano and Javier Peris and learn about how coffee farms can embrace regenerative practices

• Discover the Living Grow program in Costa Rica and the collaboration taking place to help farmers boost productivity while conserving biodiversity

• Explore why Javier calls Mariano’s farm “like another world”

• Understand the connection between soil health and overall biodiversity

The  Soil Sense podcast is for those that believe building healthier soils is not just a prescription, but rather a pursuit. On this show, we unpack the way farmers collaborate to build healthier soils and adapt systems to work on their farm for both sustainability and profitability.

Thank you to Syngenta for sponsoring this season of the Soil Sense podcast. If you are interested in what soil health looks like in practice and on the farm, please subscribe and follow this show on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a rating and review while you’re there!