Summary

Description

Manejo integrado de producción de café con miras a una producción orgánica.

El sistema agrosilvicultura orgánica pretende disminuir la pérdida del suelo, mejorar la infiltración del agua y aumentar la fertilidad del suelo a través de la utilización de barreras vivas, acordona de leña, zanjas y árboles de sombra en combinación de la trilla.

Location

Location: Alajuela, Costa Rica

No. of Technology sites analysed:

Geo-reference of selected sites

-84.444, 10.087

Spread of the Technology: evenly spread over an area (2.75 km²)

In a permanently protected area?:

Date of implementation: less than 10 years ago (recently)

Type of introduction

through land users' innovation
as part of a traditional system (> 50 years)
during experiments/ research
through projects/ external interventions

Classification of the Technology

Main purpose

improve production
reduce, prevent, restore land degradation
conserve ecosystem
protect a watershed/ downstream areas – in combination with other Technologies
preserve/ improve biodiversity
reduce risk of disasters
adapt to climate change/ extremes and its impacts
mitigate climate change and its impacts
create beneficial economic impact
create beneficial social impact

Land use

Land use mixed within the same land unit: Yes - Agroforestry

Cropland
- Annual cropping
- Perennial (non-woody) cropping
- Tree and shrub cropping: coffee, shade grown
Number of growing seasons per year: 2

Water supply

rainfed
mixed rainfed-irrigated
full irrigation

Purpose related to land degradation

prevent land degradation
reduce land degradation
restore/ rehabilitate severely degraded land
adapt to land degradation
not applicable

Degradation addressed

soil erosion by water - Wt: loss of topsoil/ surface erosion, Wg: gully erosion/ gullying

chemical soil deterioration - Cn: fertility decline and reduced organic matter content (not caused by erosion)

water degradation - Ha: aridification

SLM group

integrated crop-livestock management

SLM measures

Establishment and maintenance: activities, inputs and costs

Calculation of inputs and costs

Costs are calculated:
Currency used for cost calculation: colones
Exchange rate (to USD): 1 USD = 315.0 colones
Average wage cost of hired labour per day: 7.00

Most important factors affecting the costs

Pendiente fuerte, costo mano de obra, costo de los insumos.

Establishment activities

demarcación (Timing/ frequency: febrero-abril)
hacer huecos (Timing/ frequency: abril)
siembra (Timing/ frequency: mayo)

Maintenance activities

poda (Timing/ frequency: enero-abril / 1 vez por año)
arreglo de sombra (Timing/ frequency: mayo-agosto / 2 veces por año)
aplicación enmienda (Timing/ frequency: abril / según análisis del suelo)
fertilización (Timing/ frequency: mayo, agosto, noviembre / 3 veces por año)
atomizaciones (Timing/ frequency: mayo, agosto, noviembre / 3 veces por año)
recolección de cosecha (Timing/ frequency: noviembre-febrero / 1 vez por año)

Natural environment

Average annual rainfall

< 250 mm
251-500 mm
501-750 mm
751-1,000 mm
1,001-1,500 mm
1,501-2,000 mm
2,001-3,000 mm
3,001-4,000 mm
> 4,000 mm

Agro-climatic zone

humid
sub-humid
semi-arid
arid

Specifications on climate

1910 mm
bosque húmedo premontano

Slope

flat (0-2%)
gentle (3-5%)
moderate (6-10%)
rolling (11-15%)
hilly (16-30%)
steep (31-60%)
very steep (>60%)

Landforms

plateau/plains
ridges
mountain slopes
hill slopes
footslopes
valley floors

Altitude

0-100 m a.s.l.
101-500 m a.s.l.
501-1,000 m a.s.l.
1,001-1,500 m a.s.l.
1,501-2,000 m a.s.l.
2,001-2,500 m a.s.l.
2,501-3,000 m a.s.l.
3,001-4,000 m a.s.l.
> 4,000 m a.s.l.

Technology is applied in

convex situations
concave situations
not relevant

Soil depth

very shallow (0-20 cm)
shallow (21-50 cm)
moderately deep (51-80 cm)
deep (81-120 cm)
very deep (> 120 cm)

Soil texture (topsoil)

coarse/ light (sandy)
medium (loamy, silty)
fine/ heavy (clay)

Soil texture (> 20 cm below surface)

coarse/ light (sandy)
medium (loamy, silty)
fine/ heavy (clay)

Topsoil organic matter content

high (>3%)
medium (1-3%)
low (<1%)

Groundwater table

on surface
< 5 m
5-50 m
> 50 m

Availability of surface water

excess
good
medium
poor/ none

Water quality (untreated)

good drinking water
poor drinking water (treatment required)
for agricultural use only (irrigation)
unusable

Is salinity a problem?

Occurrence of flooding

Species diversity

high
medium
low

Habitat diversity

high
medium
low

Characteristics of land users applying the Technology

Market orientation

subsistence (self-supply)
mixed (subsistence/ commercial)
commercial/ market

Off-farm income

less than 10% of all income
10-50% of all income
> 50% of all income

Relative level of wealth

very poor
poor
average
rich
very rich

Level of mechanization

manual work
animal traction
mechanized/ motorized

Sedentary or nomadic

Sedentary
Semi-nomadic
Nomadic

Individuals or groups

individual/ household
groups/ community
cooperative
employee (company, government)

Gender

women
men

Age

children
youth
middle-aged
elderly

Area used per household

< 0.5 ha
0.5-1 ha
1-2 ha
2-5 ha
5-15 ha
15-50 ha
50-100 ha
100-500 ha
500-1,000 ha
1,000-10,000 ha
> 10,000 ha

Scale

small-scale
medium-scale
large-scale

Land ownership

state
company
communal/ village
group
individual, not titled
individual, titled

Land use rights

open access (unorganized)
communal (organized)
leased
individual

Water use rights

open access (unorganized)
communal (organized)
leased
individual

Access to services and infrastructure

Adoption and adaptation

Percentage of land users in the area who have adopted the Technology

single cases/ experimental
1-10%
11-50%
> 50%

Of all those who have adopted the Technology, how many have done so without receiving material incentives?

0-10%
11-50%
51-90%
91-100%

Has the Technology been modified recently to adapt to changing conditions?

To which changing conditions?

climatic change/ extremes
changing markets
labour availability (e.g. due to migration)

References

Compiler

Unknown User

Editors

Reviewer

Deborah Niggli
Alexandra Gavilano

Date of documentation: May 29, 2011

Last update: March 18, 2019

Resource persons

Full description in the WOCAT database

https://qcat.wocat.net/en/wocat/technologies/view/technologies_1511/

Linked SLM data

n.a.

Documentation was faciliated by

Institution

n.a.

Project

n.a.

Agrosilvicultura con café orgánico (Costa Rica)