May The Road Rise: Day 17: Christi Blogs About All Things Ag

Hey, Christi here! Kim has been gracious enough to let me guest blog on our second day in Costa Rica. I apologize it wasn't ready to go in a more timely fashion (Eduardo!). Yesterday was a wonderful day for me. I think the great thing about this experience for me has been the fact that agriculture is so ingrained in the economy/culture/education that almost every site visit that we've had has been related to my field. Yesterday was especially relevant to me however.

We started the day off bright and early around 7:30 am. My host, Oscar, is from Spain so I've been deviating from the typical Costa Rican breakfast of gallo pinto (beans and rice) for a typical Spanish breakfast of a thick piece of bread with tomato, salt, oil and cheese (while I will be the first to admit that I'm addicted to frijoles and plantains, I was ready for a break from beans!).

We then headed up the mountain to visit a local microcredit project, Modelo de Credito FIDERPAC, that Rotary has been assisting. We started the visit in their main office while Kim and Jimmy overloaded on coffee and learned the basics of the microcredit firm. Because of regulations, the firm cannot take traditional deposits. That means that there is a set amount of capital available for lending. Rotary has been assisting by providing additional funds to open more locations and expanding the reach of the project. The folks at FIDERPAC told us that they would not be able to help as many people without the assistance of Rotary. In the 20 some odd years that they have been operating they have had about 16,000 clients that have received loans. I must admit I was a little shocked at the interest rates (25%) and that there is only one day a month when clients can make payments, however, these are folks who would either not have access to credit otherwise or the long distances to banks prohibit them from going to a traditional bank.

After learning the ins and outs we headed out to the field to see some of the funded projects in the surrounding area. (Side note, we thought the day was supposed to be formal attire, hence the fancy dresses and dress pants, it made for some really great pictures!). The first stop was to the sweetest 62 year old woman named Martha's farm, who has moved from traditional-in-the-field-farming to raised beds/hydroponic farming. The medium she uses is rice husks and charcoal. She catches the excess water for the surrounding fruit trees. The one item she wishes she had was a PH meter so that she could add the water back into her existing system.

Next up was a farmer who had used the funds to put in a drip irrigation system (from 20 kilometers away!!!) I think the part that I most enjoyed about this portion (and there was so much that I enjoyed) was that everyone in between where this farmer was and the two giant tanks that catch rainwater, has access to the water and helps to maintain the infrastructure. In addition, the farmer we spoke to was rotating his crops between four fields, letting three fallow at a time (and leaving cover from the last crop). Each field is used approximately three months before fallowing again. His current crop was cucumbers, and he estimated that he could harvest a lot (we can't decide if it was 90 bags a day or 900 bags a week.... but it was a lot) each week to make his living. He made sure that we all left with an armful of cucumbers for our host families!!

The cuts in the background of the land are from an earthquake

Next we visited a family farm that processes sugar cane into molasses. However, they used the microcredit funds to put in a couple of Tilapia ponds to improve their diet and overall standard of living. While we were there, they were boiling the sugar to refine it into their final product. The byproduct of the process was used as a supplement for their pigs. We got to try some of their final product that they sell directly to the supermarket. I feel like sugar in the States is FOREVER ruined for me!!!!

Sipping on Sweet Sugarcane

Finished product

After a delicious pizza lunch (and yes I ate the entire 6 pieces of my pizza!!!) we headed to the Ministry of Agriculture. There we learned about the role of the Ministry and some of the awesome programs they have going. I think my favorite was that they have the first coffee plantation, in the history of the world, to be carbon neutral. They are actively encouraging other producers of numerous products to follow suit. I could go on and on, BUT my fellow teammates would undoubtedly remind me that I get WAY MORE excited about this stuff than the average person.