Climate-friendly coffee farming in Costa Rica _ DW English

Costa Rica wants to be carbon-neutral by 2021. It's already well on the way when it comes to protecting the rainforest. Now it's focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by coffee production. Climate-friendly coffee is also good for business. The German Giedsett Development Agency is helping the country with the conversion. The project is quite innovative. No one else is doing it yet. We hope that the production methods will allow coffee farmers to market their product as something unique, unlike any other coffee in the world. Coffee is relatively expensive in Costa Rica because of high wages and the fact that the country promotes quality instead of quantity. The coffee may be more expensive, but its quality is ensured by the National Coffee Institute, ICAFE, which has been working to improve it further and make it more climate-friendly. It's a highly scientific process. For example, farmers send samples of ailing plants to the institute where scientists look for efficient treatments, such as more ecologically sound fertilizers. And the coffee that is produced is subjected to extensive quality control. New types of plants are grown on the test fields nearby. This new plant from Brazil is showing promise. It bears an unusually large number of beans. These are the three-year-old plants. This is the entire harvest. This isn't normal for one of our traditional plants. Usually they need longer to produce so many coffee beans. And the leaves are bigger, nearly double the size of traditional leaves. And they're very tough. That helps deter fungus infections from developing quickly. Emilia Acosta's job is to convince the farmers to adopt the improved ecological practices. Besides using these plants, they also need to change how they cultivate them. They have to increase the distance between the plants, change the fertilizer and provide more shade. Those are big changes and most start with small steps. Farmers receive regular visits, this time in Orosi, one of the smaller plantations. Acosta is meeting Cecilia Geniz at the Finca Salmari. The world of coffee farmers is a small one here in Costa Rica. Cecilia Geniz explains that the harvest is already well underway, even though it's the middle of the rainy season. We're definitely noticing climate change. We didn't used to start harvesting until September. Now it's only June. That's incredible. Many local coffee farmers are here today to attend a workshop that will teach them production methods that are more climate friendly. Most emissions come from fertilizer, especially nitrogen fertilizer. If the farmers can spray more efficiently, they will produce less damaging greenhouse gases. Today, they're learning proper dosages and how to cover a hectare of coffee plants most efficiently. They're practicing with water. At the Finca, they're also learning how to keep CO2 emissions low by planting large shade trees. This trunk contains about 50 percent carbon, and the tree is constantly going through the process of photosynthesis. That means it absorbs carbon from the atmosphere through its leaves in the form of CO2. As it grows, year after year, it absorbs more and more carbon. Some trees absorb more than others. The ones with dense wood are best. The coffee producers are always curious, and they want to know more and more. Sometimes they're skeptical of new methods, but they're willing to try. They'll say, ah, maybe in that small corner over there, I'll try it and see if it works. And so step by step, they're learning by doing. And then they go over to a neighbor and say, look what I've done. I didn't think it would work, but it's super. One farmer who can show his neighbors what he's already done is Oscar Chacon. His finca, Las Lajas, is in the center of the country. He's been an organic coffee farmer for years. You feel proud when your plants look like this. When a coffee producer sees plants like this, he's happy. He's even happier with the ground. Because of the many shade trees and weeds, the grounds become more fertile. These are fungi and microorganisms, organic materials that break down and decay. It comes from leaves that fall from the trees. They contain calcium, magnesium and other materials. That means that the finca nourishes itself with the organic material. The plantation owner has been practicing environmentally friendly methods for some time now. And it's hoped that within the next two years, an additional 6,000 coffee farmers will join him. That would bring Costa Rica one step closer to being carbon neutral.