Hi,
My name is Steve Farrell and I’m an organic farmer with over 22 years of farming experience in Costa Rica.
I’m putting together a farm in northwest Costa Rica that will give a chance for some folks to own and live on a part of a beautiful working organic farm at an affordable price. From my experience as a grower and exporter of organic ginger and other crops I’ve realized that to export on a regular basis one needs to have sufficient land to provide for crop rotation.
By the time you set up rotations, fallow time and have enough crop planted to provide your market, you’re talking about a fair sized piece of land and a pretty large budget to make it happen. I’ve got a farm like that on the eastern side of the country. I needed a drier, hotter climate to grow some of the herbs and fruits for some export markets. What I didn’t have was the money to buy and operate another large farm.
I now have various partners that have bought the farm with me. Each one of us owns our land but we plan the farm as one piece of land.
The farm is located in Guanacaste province. From Cañas, one goes north on the Pan American highway for 10 kilometers (10 minutes), then turns northeast and travels 15 kilometers on a rock road (30 minutes). The nearest beaches are 100 minutes away, playa Hermosa or playa Coco. The new international airport in Liberia is 60 minutes travel time.
A rough estimation of land use consist of 50 hectares of dry deciduous forest that runs more or less parallel to the river Tenorio, 36 hectares of marginal soils that would be apt for native species reforestation and some permaculture, and 40 hectares of fertile flat land. Almost half of the land has been sold to people interested in growing food and medicinal herbs for export, fruits for the national market, CSA market garden for restaurants and hotels in the area and in some cases as a vacation home in Costa Rica.
Some ideas for the farm:
Agricultural land. All agricultural land must be farmed organically/sustainably. The farm is managed as one organism, along biodynamic farming principles. The fields (comprised of land from all the parcels) used for production will be managed on a five to seven year rotation. . Included in the rotation will be at least two years of pasture. The farm will have horses, goats, oxen and cattle in small quantities to provide manure and to be used as draft animals and recyclers of organic matter. Owners may join in the venture of growing different crops. This will help spread the risk and make it easier to raise money for the different projects. Owners are not required to participate in the projects if they don't want to. The arable land of each parcel will improve in time due to a conscientious long term fertility program. Nonarable sections of the farm will be planted with more species, increasing biodiversity with the goal of sustainable harvest in these areas.
Potential crops that might be grown on farm: melons, squash, herbs, rosemary, oregano, echinacea, quassia amara (hombre grande, bitters), aloe, sweet peppers, hot chiles, tomatoes (sun dried), popcorn, peanuts, pineapple, papaya, pitaya, mangoes, cashews, rice, beans, and sweet onions. To grow the aforementioned crops with the exception of mangos, cashews, peanuts, aloe, popcorn, corn, beans, quassia and pitaya, the farm will need a well and a pump. We will need a well for each 20 hectares of commercial organic plantings. The cost should be between eleven and sixteen thousand dollars depending on the system. This money will collected as part of the infrastructure payment for each parcel. . The well will be doused in peak of next dry season (99).
1) House sites could be located on a few concentrated areas to lessen environmental impact and provide better security against fire and theft. Some of these areas are on hilltops that have great views of the surrounding volcanoes, mountains, forest and savannas. Common right of ways, water for both household and agricultural use, is included in the contract.
2) Reforestation areas can be done individually or as a consensus farm project. Native species that may grow well on the farm.
1. Pochote (Bombacopsis quinaatum)
2. Guanacaste (Enterolobbium cyclocarpum)
3. Guachipelin (Albizia guachepele)
4. Guayacan (Tabebuia* guayacan)
5. Guapinol (Hymenaea courbari)
6. Ronron (Astronium graveolens)
7. Roble de Sabana (Tabebuia* rosa)
8. Cenizaro (Albizia saman)
9. Coco bolo
10. Cortes negro (Tabebuia* impetiginosa)
*Tabebuia (AKA La Pacho, Pau d’arco or Taheebo) as a medicinal, timber and habitat for the Tenorio river corridor. Nonnative tree options include neem and teak.
3) A biological corridor, in the discussion stage, will include much of the Tenorio River. It will link two national parks. The Arenal Conservation Area, which inludes three volcanoes, Tenorio, Miravalles and Arenal and will be Costa Rica’s largest park. The other park is the Tempisque Conservation Area, which includes Palo Verde National Park. It’s in the dry lowlands. Recently, biologists have realized the need to establish and protect corridors that allow fauna to migrate altitudinally between protected habitats. There are many types of animals on the farm, including monkeys, agoutis, pacas, coatamundis, jaguarmundis, deer, jaguar and puma.
The forested area along the river might have some common use platforms for picnicing, meditation, etc. There will be some sustainable harvest of herbs and fruits that will be planted in the forest. In general the area will not be disturbed much. This forest will become part of the corridor. The river has great swimming holes, good fishing and places to canoe or kayak.
Each farm is five hectares (12.5 acres) and has an average of 70 meters of road frontage and 70 meters of river frontage. Some have better house sites while others have better farmland. Electricity will be available in December 1999. There is great solar potential too.
email: orgbot@cooltropics.com
