Case Study 2

Organic Agriculture in Costa Rica:

The Case of the Talamanca Small Farmers Association

By Octavio Damiani
Consultant, Office of Evaluation and Studies

Report prepared for the Office of Evaluation and Studies

of the International Fund for Agricultural Development
Rome, October 2001

2
 Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. The Importance of Organic Production: The Case of APPTA
A. Organic Agricultural Production in Costa Rica
B. The Organic Production of Cacao and Bananas in Talamanca
III. Effects of the Organic Model on Small Farmers and the Environment in Talamanca
A. Effects on the Incomes and the Quality of the Lives of Farmers
B. Effects on the Natural Environment
IV. Factors in the Success of Cacao and Banana Producers
A. The Influence of Economic and Agricultural Policies
B. The Role of Policies Favouring Organic Agriculture
C. Organic Agriculture and the Programmes of Universities and Training Institutions
D. The Views and Policies of Agricultural Research, Extension and Credit Agencies
E. The Role of NGOs
F. The Role of APPTA
V. Conclusions and Potential Lessons
A. Conclusions
B. Potential Lessons

References

Map 1: Talamanca county, Costa Rica

Annex: List of Persons Interviewed

1
 Acronyms

APPTA Talamanca Small Farmers Association

CNP National Production Council
EU European Union
INA National Training Institute

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

NOAP National Organic Agriculture Programme

PITTA National Programme of Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer

2
 I. INTRODUCTION

1. This report focuses on the recent growth of organic agricultural production in Costa Rica, one of
the countries that has advanced the most in Latin America in developing institutions to deal with
organic agriculture. The National Organic Agriculture Programme (NOAP) within the Ministry of
Agriculture and Livestock was established in 1994; an Organic Agriculture Law was passed by
Congress in 1996 and several other laws have been approved since the mid-nineties. In addition,
Costa Rica has also been successful in implementing policies to preserve its diverse ecosystems, and
it has been making efforts to promote environmentally friendly economic activities among small
farmers, such as ecotourism and organic agriculture. These measures have contributed to the creation
of a good international image that has been favourable for the access of Costa Rican organic products
on foreign markets.

2. The study provides an overview of the development of organic agriculture in Costa Rica and
analyses in detail the case of the Talamanca Small Farmers Association (APPTA), a well-known
success story in Costa Rica because it has become the largest association of organic small producers
in the country and one of the largest in Central America. APPTA includes 1 500 small farmers, most
of them Bribri and Cabécar indigenous people who live and produce in an indigenous reservation in
Talamanca county (province of Limón) in the south-east of the country (see Map 1). These farmers
had been growing cacao since the forties. When a disease (moniliasis) caused by Moniliophtora
roreri sp. decimated the crops in the late seventies, the farmers were left without their only source of
cash income. As a result, the farmers abandoned their cacao plantations and many slashed and burned
the cacao-growing areas in order to cultivate subsistence crops (corn, beans and rice) or guinea. By
the early nineties, they were living mainly on subsistence crops and poultry, selling a very low
proportion of their production on the market.

3. APPTA was successful in promoting a revival of cacao production. With the help of the ANAI
Association, a non-governmental organization (NGO) of US origin that has been working with
indigenous communities in Talamanca since the early eighties, APPTA established contacts with
buyers of organic cacao in the United States and, in the early nineties, was able to certify a significant
area of cacao and to start exporting to the US. After this initial success, APPTA carried out efforts to
sell other products (especially bananas) that were being grown by its members under the rain forest
and often mixed with cacao, but which were used for household consumption. As a result of these
undertakings, APPTA obtained organic certification for the production by its members of bananas,
and it started selling bananas to foreign firms based in Costa Rica that were using bananas to produce
baby food (organic puree of bananas), which they were exporting to Europe and the United States. By
2000, more than 1 000 APPTA members had obtained certification as organic producers of more than
2 000 ha of cacao and bananas. APPTA was exporting cacao directly to Europe and the United States
and was selling organic bananas for the production of baby food. In addition, it negotiated with a
supermarket chain in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, to sell organic fruits and vegetables and
started a programme to promote these products. The programme came to involve an increasing
number of APPTA members. Finally, APPTA initiated efforts with government agencies to produce
organic bananas to be sold fresh on the international market.

4. Organic production in Talamanca had significant positive effects on the incomes and the quality
of the lives of farmers. This is important because Talamanca is one of the poorest regions in Costa
Rica, showing the lowest literacy rates and lowest incomes in the country. Farmers had lost access
even to the limited domestic market for cacao because middlemen had stopped purchasing cacao from
most communities in Talamanca due to their low output levels. As a result of the emergence and
expansion of organic production, farmers were able to start selling cacao again, and they obtained
prices for the cacao that were significantly higher than the prices on the conventional market. In
addition, while the prices the banana-processing industry paid to APPTA producers for their organic
products were low compared to the international market price for fresh organic bananas, farmers were
able to obtain a constant source of income by selling every two or three weeks all year round.

3
 Map 1: Talamanca county, Costa Rica

5. In addition, the organic models of production had positive effects on the environment. This is
important because Talamanca is one of the ecologically richest and most diverse regions in Costa
Rica. Organic cacao and bananas were environmentally friendly because they were not grown as a
monoculture, but under the shade of rain-forest trees and combined with other products, such as fruits
and tubers, in an improved form of the traditional systems of production. According to several studies
carried out by specialists, these organic systems of production characteristic of Talamanca were also
associated with the conservation of wildlife.

6. The paper discusses the factors that led to the success of organic production in Talamanca,
analysing the role of laws, regulations and agencies dealing with organic agriculture, the main
problems that small producers faced when growing organic crops, the ways in which they solved
these problems and the role of government institutions, private agencies, APPTA and NGOs. The
main questions addressed in the paper are the following:

(a) What were the positive and negative effects of organic production on the production and incomes
of small farmers?

(b) What were the main constraints that small farmers faced when they started to grow and sell
organic crops?

(c) What were the main interventions that government agencies and NGOs implemented to help small
farmers successfully cultivate organic crops?

7. The findings presented here are based on fieldwork carried out in Costa Rica between 14 and 28
August 2001. During that time, interviews were conducted in Alajuela, Cartago and San José with
government officials, researchers and professors at the University of Costa Rica, and professionals at
international organizations, government agencies and NGOs. In addition, producers of organic crops
were visited in the counties of Talamanca, where the production of organic bananas and cacao is
concentrated, and Alajuela, where most of the fresh organic vegetables are produced. The author was
joined on the visits to Talamanca by Michelle Deugd of the Free University of Amsterdam’s Centre of
Rural Development Studies located in San José who focused on a microeconomic analysis of organic
production and elaborated a paper that provided valuable information for this study.

4
8. The report is organized as follows. The second section describes organic agricultural production
in Costa Rica and the case of the APPTA. The third section examines the forces that led to the
emergence of organic products in Costa Rica and the influence of various factors, including
macroeconomic and agricultural policies, the role of government and private institutions involved in
agricultural research, extension and training, and the influence of NGOs. The fourth section looks at
the key interventions that led to the successful production of organic bananas and cacao in Talamanca.
The last section offers conclusions and some preliminary lessons for project design.

II. THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIC PRODUCTION: THE CASE OF APPTA

A. Organic Agricultural Production in Costa Rica

9. The cultivation of organic crops in Costa Rica started in the mid-eighties. Interestingly, it
originated not as a result of a specific programme or project of government agencies or non-
governmental organizations (NGOs), but as a result of the initiative of farmer associations and
individual farmers growing different crops in various regions of the country in response to critical
situations that they faced because of crop pests and diseases or the excessive use of pesticides. These
initiatives involved small cacao producers in the Atlantic region (Talamanca, province of Limón)
whose crops had been decimated by a disease, small coffee producers in the Central and Northern
regions (provinces of Alajuela and Guanacaste) who were experiencing financial problems due to the
high costs of the intensive use of pesticides and vegetable producers in the Central region (province of
Alajuela) who were facing high costs and health problems linked to the use of chemical inputs. While
these experiences were unrelated, they had in common the experimentation of farmers with organic
fertilizers and pesticides and, for some crops, notably, cacao and coffee, the use of natural forests for
the cultivation of some crops.

10. Simultaneously, a dynamic and diverse ‘organic movement’ appeared in the late eighties. This
movement included NGOs and individuals, mostly urban professionals working at universities and
with NGOs, who were concerned about the negative impacts of conventional agriculture on the
natural environment and the possible negative effects of chemical residues on the health of
consumers. Although this organic movement did not have an influence in the emergence of organic
agriculture in Costa Rica, it played a key role in the development of an institutional and legal
framework for organic agriculture beginning in the mid-nineties. It encouraged useful studies on the
situation of organic agriculture in Costa Rica, and its work contributed to the adoption of organic
agriculture by other producers.

11. Finally, a research project funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency in the late
eighties and implemented through the University of Costa Rica and the National Training Institute
(INA) also played a very important part in the emergence of organic agriculture. The Fabio Baudrit
Experimental Station, a University of Costa Rica research station located in Alajuela, was carrying
out research on vegetable-production technologies, and some researchers were interested in
developing organic inputs as an alternative to chemical inputs. The INA, a government agency created
in 1960 to provide training to small farmers and workers in all economic activities, was also interested
in incorporating new topics to its agricultural training programmes. The project sponsored by the
Japanese International Cooperation Agency involved Japanese researchers and volunteer professionals
who analysed and eventually promoted the use of organic fertilizers (bocashi) in place of chemical
fertilizers among vegetable producers in the Central region. Its results were significant, leading to an
increasing interest among university researchers and NGOs and encouraging other vegetable
producers (both small farmers and firms) to shift to organic production.

12. By early 2001, the estimated area under organic production in Costa Rica was around 7 000 ha,
about 1.6% of the country’s total cultivated area (449 000 ha, see Table 1). About half of this area had
been formally certified as organic, while the rest was in transition and might obtain – at least part of it
– formal certification in the next one to three years. Bananas and cacao were the most important

5
certified crops, with close to 2 300 ha (64% of the certified organic area). Other important certified
crops were coffee (860 ha), blackberries (730 ha) and vegetables (43 ha).1 Organic vegetables and
crops that had not yet been certified (basic grains, roots and spices) were sold mainly on the domestic
market, while the certified crops were produced for export.

Table 1: Estimated areas under organic production, by crop, 2001

Organic Area (ha) Total Area (ha)

Bananas a/ 2 265 50 000
Cacao a/ 2 200
Bananas 679 49 394
Coffee 860 106 000
Oranges 550 25 200
Blackberries 730 n/a
Vegetables 43 26 650
Beans 1 398 35 550
Cashews 182 N/A
Sugar cane 128 46 000
Pineapples 33 9 900
Spices b/ 30 n/a
Mango 7 9 270
Other crops c/ 197 53 809
Total 7 102 448 973
Source: IICA (2001) and Executive Secretariat, Agricultural Sector Planning.
a/ Includes the total certified areas of the Talamanca Small Farmers Association (APPTA) in Talamanca. This
comprises several production systems in which cacao and bananas are grown under the rain forest and combined
with other species. The main production systems are cacao + forest, bananas + forest, cacao + bananas + forest,
and cacao + bananas + fruits + forest.
b/ Includes vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, curcuma, peppermint lemon grass and wild marjoram.
c/ Includes mainly palm, guinea, cassava and corn. The ‘total area’ column also includes cashew, blackberries
and spices.

13. Organic bananas and cacao were produced in Talamanca county (province of Limón), while
organic vegetables were concentrated in the province of Alajuela, and organic coffee was grown
mainly in the provinces of Alajuela and Guanacaste. All of the production of organic cacao and
blackberries and most of the coffee were exported to the European Union (EU) and the United States
(Table 2). Most of the banana production was sold processed as baby food to Europe and the US,
while a small fraction was sold fresh in a supermarket chain in San José, the capital.

Table 2: Exports of organic products (t per year)

Volume Market
Coffee* 11 020 US
Bananas 20 400 EU
Blackberries 964 US
Oranges 6 136 EU
Spices 1.4 US
Sugar cane 630 EU
Cacao 300 EU, US
Pineapples 264 US
Medicinal plants N/a EU, US
Source: Based on information in IICA (2001).
* In quintals (one quintal = approximately 45.5 kg).

1
The areas under organic production are estimated in IICA (2001).

6
B. The Organic Production of Cacao and Bananas in Talamanca

14. The producers of organic cacao and bananas are located in Talamanca county, which is in the
province of Limón in the south-eastern part of Costa Rica. Talamanca is characterized by a tropical
rainy climate (in average 4 000 mm of rainfall and a temperature of 25.6 degrees Celsius), and it
includes lands between 40 and 1 500 m above sea level in two main, well-defined areas: the highlands
and the valley. The highlands account for about 82% of the total area and 20% of the population,
while the valley accounts for 18% of the area and 80% of the population. The highlands exhibit higher
rains (up to 6 400 mm) and slopes between 13% and 60%; one third of the area has slopes over 57%,
and more than half has slopes over 29%. The highlands pose substantial constraints on agriculture.
Fertility is low, and there is high risk of erosion. In contrast, the valley has less rain, slopes of less
than 13% and moderately fertile soils, though there is a high risk of flooding. The valley has been
used more intensively for agriculture, and basic grains, cacao, guinea and fruits are the most important
crops.

15. Most of the producers of organic cacao and bananas live in an indigenous reservation created in
1977 through the Indigenous Law (No. 6162). At that time, the reservation had a total area of
66 419 ha (664.2 km2) and a population of 6 500, which meant that the population density was 10
persons per km2. In 1982, the Government divided the area into two different reservations, the
Indigenous Reservation of Talamanca Bribri and the Indigenous Reservation of Talamanca Cabécar,
with areas of 43 690 ha and 22 729 ha, respectively.2 Both reservations together account for 23% of
the area and 45% of the population of Talamanca county. They are both part of La Amistad National
Park and the Talamanca-Caribe Biological Corridor, which also include the Gandoca Manzanillo
Wildlife Refugee, Cahuita National Park and the Hitoy Cerere Biological Reservation.

16. Most of the organic producers are smallholder farmers who usually grow a mix of crops
cultivated under the rain forest. Cacao was their most important cash crop between the forties and the
late seventies. In contrast to farmers in other regions who grew cacao as a specialized crop, most
farmers in Talamanca grew cacao as a part of a production system that included shade trees and rain
forest. In the late seventies, the attack of Moniliophtora roreri sp. and low world market prices led
farmers to abandon these crops. While many turned to slash-and-burn agriculture, others maintained
the cacao plantations, usually combined with trees such as avocado (Persea sp.), citrus (Citrus sp.),
cedar (Cedrela odorata) and laurel (Cordia alliodora). This production system was important because
it required relatively little work, its cost was low and farmers could still harvest and sell some cacao at
the end of each year (between October and December).

17. Nowadays, the production system exhibits numerous variations, including perennial crops such as
cacao and bananas, fruits and tubers, mixed with shade trees and rain forest. When bananas are
grown, the system includes an old, tall (about 7 m) variety (Gros Michel), which is cultivated under
shade rain-forest trees, but in a somewhat ‘purer’ form (that is, less mixed with other crops) than is
the case for cacao. Most farmers have about 1 ha with cacao as a main crop, mixed with fruits, timber
trees and bananas, and about 1 ha with more or less pure bananas. In addition, they usually cultivate
an area of basic grains (rice, corn and beans) in a slash-and-burn system. Some of them – especially in
the lowlands – also cultivate guinea as a single crop.3

18. The cultivation of bananas is based on manual activities, such as weeding, the clearing of soil
around the plant and the removal of old leaves. In most cases, farmers remove numerous slips or
shoots around the plant, selecting among them and leaving two strong and well-distributed shoots for
the next cycle. Most farmers put tape around the stems in order to keep track of the maturation
process, and they place sticks under the stems to prevent the plant from collapsing. Some farmers
apply a bacterial composition called “EM”, which is intended to enhance the general resistance of the

2
Borge and Castillo (1997).
3
See Deugd (2001).

7
plants. Few farmers place plastic bags around the bunches to protect the fruit. No other organic inputs
are normally used, and most of the production tasks are carried out using family labour.

19. The Talamanca Small Farmers Association (APPTA) was created in 1987 with the assistance of
the ANAI Association, an NGO of US origin that had been working since the mid-eighties with
indigenous communities to promote reafforestation and the introduction of new species of trees in
harmony with the existing forests. ANAI endorsed the creation of APPTA because it saw the
association as a means of advancing the collective marketing of products and of attracting
international donors that supported indigenous communities in developing countries.

20. After an initial phase in which it emphasized work on projects funded by foreign donors that
involved the conservation of rain forests, APPTA developed contacts through ANAI with US buyers
of organic cacao. These contacts led to the certification of cacao by a US certification agency, the
Organic Crop Improvement Association, and the possibility of exporting cacao to the US. Later on,
APPTA negotiated successfully with firms in Costa Rica to sell organic bananas. By 2000, APPTA
was exporting 210 t of organic cacao annually, of which 160 t (76%) were sent to the US and 50 t
(24%) to Europe, and it was selling 1 300 t of organic bananas to Gerber, which used the product to
make banana puree that was then exported to Europe and the US.

III. EFFECTS OF THE ORGANIC MODEL ON SMALL FARMERS AND THE

ENVIRONMENT IN TALAMANCA

A. Effects on the Incomes and the Quality of the Lives of Farmers

21. Organic production has had substantial positive effects on the incomes and the quality of the lives
of farmers. Small farmers in Talamanca had lost their only source of cash income in the late seventies
when their cacao plantations were decimated by a disease that made them abandon the crop. By the
late eighties, most of these farmers were obtaining their incomes from subsistence crops (rice, corn
and beans), timber from the rain forest, and fishing and hunting. The sale of organic cacao and
bananas allowed the farmers to gain a new and substantial source of cash income. During the harvest
in late 2000, APPTA paid an average of close to USD 1.00 per kg of organic cacao to its members,
while the price paid for conventional cacao by middlemen in the region was an average USD 0.40 per
kg. This wide price difference is illustrative of what has happened since APPTA started exporting
organic cacao. Meanwhile, organic bananas were being paid at USD 0.08 per kg for an average
production of 12 t per farmer.4 Because cacao is harvested in two seasonal peaks and bananas are
harvested every two or three weeks all year round, both crops have also contributed greatly to the
generation of more stable incomes throughout the year.

22. According to a study carried out by APPTA, the revenues from organic cacao and bananas
represented 31.7% of the total income of the farmers, with an additional 37.2% coming from products
from the forests that are part of the organic cacao and banana-production systems. If only cash
incomes are considered, organic cacao and bananas represented 61.8% of the income (see Table 3).

Table 3: Sources of family income among APPTA producers, community of Katsi, Talamanca
(%)

Cash Income Total Income

Organic cacao 36.5 11.3
Organic bananas 25.3 20.4
Forest products 0.0 37.2
Guinea 36.0 15.4
Corn 0.0 2.3
Beans 0.0 1.3
Rice 0.0 4.8
4
The average used here corresponds to the data obtained from the sample of APPTA members used by Deugd (2001).

8
Poultry 2.2 7.2
Total 100.0 100.0
Source: APPTA.

23. A study by Deugd (2001) has evaluated the microeconomic performance of the production
systems predominant among members of APPTA and has found that organic cacao and bananas have
made a significant contribution to their incomes. The production system that includes cacao, bananas,
fruits and trees has generated a family income which is 60% higher than the income the family
members would have obtained through similar work in the same location (USD 11.60 per day
compared to USD 7.27 per day). The results are satisfactory even if the family-labour costs (which are
not paid) are incorporated into the overall costs. A separate evaluation of a production system that
includes bananas, mixed with other fruits and trees, shows an even better performance, with an
income for family labour of USD 14.90 per day. The production system that includes cacao as a main
crop, mixed with rain-forest products and fruits, generates USD 5.50 per day. Although the economic
performance of this last system is slightly negative if family-labour costs are taken into account, it is
important to recall that small farmers themselves often do not consider family labour as a cost. The
net income without regard to family-labour costs was USD 264 per ha per year, an important
supplement to the family income, especially for households with members who do not have access to
other job opportunities.

24. Finally, while there is no specific information on the effects of organic agriculture on health, the
organic-production systems that farmers applied in Talamanca prevented the expansion of crops
which might have relied intensively on chemical inputs. The use of chemical inputs is substantial not
only in Talamanca, but in Costa Rica as a whole. Recent studies have shown that Costa Rica has one
of the highest levels of pesticide consumption in the world (about 4 kg per person annually).5 More
than 1 400 cases of intoxication caused by pesticides were reported in 1998, one third of them
affecting minors. Cases of cancer, the origin of which is often related to the use of synthetic
pesticides, are also high among the Costa Rican population.6 In Talamanca, much of the lowlands
consist of important areas where bananas are grown by transnational corporations, which use a
technological package characterized by the intensive use of pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers. In
addition, there has been a significant increase in the area where guinea is grown as a single crop
through conventional technologies.

B. Effects on the Natural Environment

25. The effects of the production systems associated with organic production in Talamanca are very
important because the region is one of the most biodiverse in Costa Rica and has one of the largest
forested areas in Central America. Several authors have estimated that Talamanca has more than
10 000 species of superior plants, which represent more than 90% of the assets of Costa Rica, more
than 4 000 species of inferior plants and close to 1 000 types of ferns of the 1 300 existing in Costa
Rica.7

26. The Government has established reservations and protected areas, and Talamanca has been
substantially transformed by the expansion of agriculture. Guinea and cacao have traditionally been
the main cash crops. After cacao was affected by moniliasis, many farmers, especially in the
lowlands, slashed the cacao crops and started to grow guinea instead. Meanwhile, most farmers in the
highlands abandoned the crop and turned to subsistence crops. By 1992, the forest occupied 33% of
the land, guinea 18%, cacao 12%, basic grains 7%, bananas 5% and sugar cane 1%. 8 The pressures for
further expansion of the areas under agriculture have been significant because of the high population
density that characterizes Talamanca. A large proportion of the population is indigenous and shows
5
See Programa Nacional de Agricultura Orgánica (1999), page 9.
6
See Programa Nacional de Agricultura Orgánica (1999), page 9.
7
Tsochok (1992), cited by Borge and Castillo (1997).
8
Geography Department of the University of Costa Rica, Comisión para la Defensa de los Derechos Indígenas de
Talamanca and Royal Embassy of Denmark (1994).

9
some of the most serious levels of poverty in Costa Rica. In addition, an important share of the banana
plantations that are grown in Costa Rica by transnational corporations is concentrated in Talamanca.
These banana crops are monoculture systems characterized by a very high use of pesticides and other
chemical inputs, and they have represented one of the most important dangers to the conservation of
the ecological diversity of Talamanca. Finally, government agencies – the National Production
Council (CNP) and the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock – have
recently been providing technical assistance and subsidies for investment in the cultivation of guinea
in Talamanca as a part of a government programme to promote non-traditional crops. Guinea has
usually been cultivated as a single crop in areas once occupied by rain forest and involves a
substantial use of chemical inputs.

27. Several authors who have studied the production systems dominant among APPTA farmers have
found that these systems had positive effects on the natural environment compared with other
production systems. Due to the thick ground cover that is typical of organic production systems,
which combine cacao and bananas with fruits and tubers under the rain forest, the degree of erosion
and leaching is considered minimal compared to monoculture-production systems. In addition, all
product residues are used for home consumption, and the residues of the cacao are reintegrated into
the system (Deugd, 2001).

28. Some studies have found that, although the agroforestry systems characteristic of farmers in
Talamanca were not as ecologically diverse as the natural forests, they were much more diverse than
fields with single crops. Guiracocha (2000) has found that, while the natural forests in Talamanca
have 85 species of trees and palms, the shaded cacao fields have about 35 species, while the shaded
banana fields have 14 species, and the single banana or guinea have none. The number of animal
species in the natural forests is 51, while it is 25 in shaded cacao, and 9 in shaded banana. No
substantial differences are found in the number of mammals in the three systems. Parrish et al. (1999)
have also found no significant differences between the number of species of birds in the shaded cacao
fields of Talamanca (131 species) and in the natural forest (130 species). A large number of these
species (44 in the natural forest and 34 in shaded cacao) are protected under the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or were endangered according to
classifications of the World Conservation Union.9 Analysing the production systems of APPTA
farmers in Talamanca, Parrish et al. (1999) conclude that the management of shaded cacao leads to a
lower incidence of pests and disease and a higher level of natural reproduction as a direct result of the
greater ecological diversity.

29. While most authors have found the effects on the natural environment to be positive, it has also
been argued that the crops sold on the market, especially bananas, may involve a net loss of nutrients
if a high loss of biomass is not offset by the incorporation of nutrients. Comparing nutrient output
through crop harvesting and nutrient input through material pruned from trees, Deugd (2001) has
concluded that the extraction of nitrogen, phosphorus and magnesium has been more or less offset.
However, the potassium balance was negative, with a loss of about 47 kg per year. Judged on the
basis of data on the soil in the research area (Umaña, 2001), the average level of potassium was just
within the normal range, so that annual potassium losses may have a negative long-term effect on the
sustainability of the organic banana system. This would mean that management practices should
require the use of some organic fertilizers.

IV. FACTORS IN THE SUCCESS OF CACAO AND BANANA PRODUCERS

A. The Influence of Economic and Agricultural Policies

30. The Government implemented economic and agricultural policies that had positive effects on
organic production even though they were not specifically targeted on organic production. These
policies involved structural reforms, especially in the financial sector and in international and

9
See Parrish et al. (1999), pages 24-25.

10
domestic trade policies. The financial-sector reforms included the reduction of subsidies for credit
schemes, the liberalization of interest rates and the authorization for intermediate financial institutions
to establish passive and active interest rates. In 1995, a new law on the modernization of financial
institutions reduced the role of the Central Bank. The main impacts of these reforms on the
agricultural sector were related to the contraction of the formal financial sector and of the credit
available for the agricultural sector, the sharp increase in interest rates and the fresh difficulties faced
by small farmers in gaining access to credit. Meanwhile, a substantial number of new non-
governmental financial institutions emerged. The reforms in trade policy were tied to the fact that
Costa Rica had joined the World Trade Organization, signed a free trade agreement with Mexico,
liberalized imports of machinery, equipment and vehicles and implemented fiscal incentives for
exports.

31. These policies partly explain the favourable growth of the Costa Rican economy during the
nineties. The average annual growth rate of the gross domestic product reached 5.8% between 1991
and 1999, while the growth of the gross agricultural product reached 4.1% annually over the same
period. Total exports grew almost fivefold between 1991 and 1999 (from USD 1.4 billion to
6.6 billion), while agricultural exports almost doubled (from USD 1.0 billion to 1.9 billion) over the
same period. Non-traditional agricultural exports increased from 23.5% of agricultural exports in
1991 to 39.8% in 1999.

32. The Government also implemented trade and agricultural policy reforms during the nineties that
reduced dramatically the support to traditional crops (mainly corn and beans) and promoted their
replacement by non-traditional crops. Until the late eighties, the Government had intervened actively
in the market for basic grains as a part of a food policy that aimed at ensuring the domestic supply at
reasonable prices. The CNP had purchased basic grains from farmers, stored them in its own facilities
and imported them if domestic production did not satisfy domestic demand. In addition, the
Government had established high tariffs on imported grains, while setting consumer and producer
prices.

33. As a part of trade reform, the Government reduced dramatically this role in the domestic market
for basic grains, lifting price controls and transferring storage facilities to farmer associations. The
tariffs for basic grains were reduced, and other trade barriers were lifted. In addition, the Government
implemented programmes to promote expansion in non-traditional crops by providing subsidies for
investment in farmer associations and for credit for the creation by farmers of new plantations. The
mission of the CNP was changed so that it promoted non-traditional crops and agro-processing and
was responsible for the administration of government subsidies to projects involving non-traditional
crops. As a result of these policies, the area under cultivation with basic grains fell substantially, and,
at the same time, many small farmer associations all over Costa Rica undertook a wide variety of
initiatives involving non-traditional crops, including the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, organic
crops and agrotourism.

B. The Role of Policies Favouring Organic Agriculture

34. Costa Rica is one of the Latin American countries that has advanced the most in developing
institutions to deal with organic agriculture. The main policy instruments were created in the mid-
nineties, including a set of laws and a National Organic Agriculture Programme (NOAP).

1. Laws and regulations

35. The main laws dealing with organic agriculture in Costa Rica are the Organic Environment Law
(No. 7554), approved in November 1995, and the Organic Agriculture Decree, approved by the
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in 1997. In addition, several other laws have been approved to

11
regulate various issues related to organic agriculture, such as the registration of producers of organic
inputs, soil conservation and the use of poultry manure.10

36. (a) The Organic Environment Law, an umbrella law, has been important in terms of the
definitions it contains on certain relevant issues:

(i) It provides a definition of ‘organic agriculture’.

(ii) It designated the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock as the government agency in charge of the
design and implementation of policies concerning organic agriculture, the establishment of norms and
procedures, the supervision over certification agencies and the promotion of research and the
dissemination of organic technologies.11

(iii) It established the requirement that organic products must be certified by a national or
international certification agency legally registered in Costa Rica, and it defined the minimum period
(three years) for the transition from conventional to organic agriculture.12

(iv) It created the National Ecological Agriculture Commission to assist the Ministry of Agriculture
and Livestock in matters related to organic agriculture. The commission is composed of a
representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, a representative of the state universities
who has experience in the dissemination of organic technologies, three representatives of
organizations involved in organic products, a representative of a firm or organization which is
implementing programmes or projects to promote organic agriculture and a representative of
registered organic certification agencies.13

37. (b) The Organic Agriculture Decree (No. 25834), approved in February 1997, created a detailed
regulatory framework for the production, processing and marketing of organic products. The most
important measures, which were expanded in 2000, though they were not changed in substance,
involve the following:

(i) Detailed definitions of the nature of organic agricultural products, including a prohibition on the
use of terms that could lead to consumer confusion.

(ii) The designation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, through the NOAP, as the
government organization in charge of supervising the application of regulations and of promoting
organic agriculture. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock was made responsible for
the establishment of norms for the production, processing, packing, conservation, certification,
inspection and marketing of organic products.14

(iii) The creation of detailed norms for the production, processing, marketing, labelling, packing and
control of organic products, including the use of organically grown seeds, the implementation of farm
management plans to provide adequate protection for crops, the implementation of water-conservation
plan for irrigated crops, the application of soil-conservation measures and the imposition of a
minimum three-year period of the application of the procedures for organic production before the
output of a producer could be labelled organic.

(iv) The establishment of the requirement to register all products labelled organic with the Ministry of
Agriculture and Livestock, which determines if the products meet the quality and technical

10
Decree No. 25538, approved in October 1996, regulates the use of poultry manure. Law No. 7779 on Soil Use,
Management and Conservation, approved in May 1998, contains provisions on the use and conservation of soils.
11
Law No. 7554, Article 73.
12
Law No. 7554, Articles 74 and 75.
13
Law No. 7554, Article 76.
14
Decree No. 25834, Articles 5 and 7.

12
specifications established in the laws and regulations and provides a ministry stamp guaranteeing the
products as organic.15

(v) The creation of a list of authorized inputs, including fertilizers and products for the control of pests
and disease and for food processing.

38. (c) The Phytosanitary Protection Law (No. 7664), approved in May 1997, established general
regulations on phytosanitary controls. It included specific provisions on organic agriculture. It
designated the State Phytosanitary Service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock as the entity
responsible for registering producers and processors of organic vegetables and organic inputs, for
assuring compliance with established procedures of organic production, for issuing certificates for
organic products and for authorizing specialized inspectors and certification agencies.16 In addition,
the law required the Government to promote organic agriculture by covering the costs of certification
for up to two years for small farmers who can demonstrate that they cannot afford to pay themselves.

39. (d) Decree No. 26921 was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in May 1998 as
part of the Phytosanitary Protection Law of one year earlier. It established that the State Phytosanitary
Service should oversee compliance with the norms and procedures on organic certification, register
certification agencies, inspectors, farms and companies producing organic inputs. In addition, the law
provided detailed definitions on the criteria and the procedures for obtaining organic certification and
the registration and operation of certification agencies and inspectors. Among other provisions, it
created an organic certification committee, which has functions equivalent to those of a certification
agency.

2. The NOAP

40. The NOAP was created in 1994 within the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. It was to
support and promote the development of organic agriculture in Costa Rica. The main instruments that
the NOAP has used to accomplish this have been the following: (a) the promotion of organic
agriculture among producers and consumers, (b) the dissemination of information, (c) training, (d) the
formulation of studies and plans, (e) support for research activities, (f) the promotion of incentives,
credit schemes and other support policies and (g) coordination among the various public and private
agencies.17

41. After a slow start, the NOAP became more active starting in the late nineties, coordinating
various activities with government and private organizations, mainly the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock, the CNP, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Energy,
universities, producer associations, NGOs and international organizations. The programme undertook
a diagnosis of organic agriculture in Costa Rica in 1999 and prepared the next year an action plan
with the participation of representatives from government agencies, NGOs and producer associations.
The action plan proposed alliances between government and private agencies to generate information,
carry out training exercises, research and extension work, improve the laws, regulations and
institutions dealing with organic agriculture and promote the production, processing and marketing of
organic products.18

3. The effects of the new laws and government organizations on organic agriculture

42. While Costa Rica has made significant progress in developing institutions to deal with organic
agriculture, the impact of these institutions on the development of organic crops has not yet been
significant. The emergence of organic agriculture took place in the late eighties before these
institutions had been created starting in the mid-nineties.
15
Decree No. 25834, Article 37.
16
Decree No. 25834, Article 11.
17
See National Organic Agriculture Programme (1999).
18
See National Organic Agriculture Programme (2000).

13
43. This does not mean that the new institutions are not necessary. Indeed, these institutions have
become essential in the effort to gain access to export markets because of the new demands of
importing countries. For example, the EU recently established that countries exporting organic
products to EU members must satisfy minimum standards in terms of the existence of national laws
and institutions to ensure that the production systems and certification processes for organic products
meet EU requirements. Thus, the development of such institutions is necessary if a country wishes to
sell on the export market to the EU. Likewise, countries must now create institutions to ensure that
standards on animal and plant health are met. Once a country has met the EU requirements, it can
obtain EU ‘third-country status’ and is allowed to export products to the EU that have been certified
as organic by its own certification agencies. In addition, the existence of laws and institutions means
that exporters of organic products can rely on a national framework to support them in case of
problems on foreign markets. Until mid-2001, only six countries had obtained EU third-country
status. Argentina was the only such country in Latin America. Costa Rica has completed the
application process and is hopeful that it will obtain third-country status soon.

44. An additional positive effect of the development of national institutions may, in certain
circumstances, be a drop in the cost of certification faced by farmers. In fact, the new laws and
regulations require that all certification agencies register and open offices in Costa Rica. Until the
nineties, as in other Latin American countries (except Argentina), the certification agencies working
in Costa Rica were European or US firms. Thus, a farmer or group of farmers had to pay additional
costs because the inspectors traveled from foreign countries. They had to pay expensive air tickets and
professional fees that were similar to the fees these inspectors charged their home producers. In
contrast, nationally based certification agencies had significantly lower travel expenses and could pay
lower fees to inspectors based in Costa Rica. In some countries (for example, Guatemala), national
certification agencies were created, but they still had to enter into partnerships with European or US
certification agencies in order to be respected in importing countries.

45. Unfortunately, according to most of the producers and producer associations interviewed, the
costs of certification seem not to have fallen in Costa Rica. The reasons are likely to be the following:

(a) Buyers in importing countries still prefer that the products they purchase are certified by
certification agencies in their own countries with which they have worked in the past and trust. For
this reason, the national certification agencies in Costa Rica, as in other countries, must enter into
partnerships with foreign certification agencies in order to satisfy foreign buyers of Costa Rican
products. In such partnerships, the national certification agency usually carries out most of the work
involved in the certification process, but two certifications are issued, one from the local agency, and
the other from the foreign agency. The partnerships represent an extra cost for the local agencies, and
this cost is transferred entirely to producers.

(b) Only one national certification agency (Eco-Lógica) had become legally registered by early 2001,
when another one (Aimcopop) registered and started operations. In addition, several foreign
certification agencies registered and opened offices in San José, including the Organic Crop
Improvement Association (US), BCS ÖKO Garantie (Germany), Ecocert (France-Germany) and Skal.
Thus, there seems to be enough business for numerous certification agencies.

46. In any case, it is important that the organic production of cacao and bananas in Talamanca, as
well as other crops that have been cultivated since the late nineties, have emerged as a result of
producers initiatives without the backing of any public policy or institutions aimed specifically at
supporting organic agriculture. Some organizations, mainly NGOs and universities, eventually
supported farmers in the production and marketing of organic products.

C. Organic Agriculture and the Programmes of Universities and Training Institutions

14
47. Universities and training institutions in Costa Rica have been increasingly incorporating organic
agriculture in their programmes since the early nineties. Although there are a few programmes
focused specifically on sustainable agriculture, agricultural specialists in Costa Rica – especially the
younger ones who were students in the nineties – have usually been concerned about and possess a
good general knowledge of sustainable agriculture and the technologies of organic production.

48. The most important university and professional training institutions involved in organic
agriculture are EARTH, the University of Costa Rica and the INA. EARTH is a private international
university that established a campus in the province of Limón in 1990. It specializes in education and
research in the agricultural sciences. It has a bachelor’s programme in agricultural sciences and
natural resources in which Costa Rican and international students are enrolled. The programme’s
approach to agriculture is based on long-term sustainability, and organic agriculture is viewed in the
context of sustainable models of agricultural production.

49. The University of Costa Rica created an organic agriculture programme in 1995 as a means to
coordinate the teaching and research initiatives in organic agriculture at the university. As part of the
programme, a one-semester course on organic agriculture is offered within the academic programme
leading to a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences. However, the academic programme has not
changed substantially and still focuses on conventional agriculture. The course on organic agriculture
is optional, so a relatively small (but growing) number of students has been taking it.

50. The INA has also been carrying out training in organic agriculture. The INA, a government
agency created in 1960, provides training to workers in all areas of economic activity and is well
known in Costa Rica for being very effective. It is quite well funded, receiving the revenues obtained
from a tax paid by firms with more than ten permanent employees and calculated at 1.5% of wages.
The INA organizes its efforts through seven regional offices and twelve technology centres, which
focus on different sectors and activities, such as agriculture, food processing, metallurgy, services and
tourism. One of these technology centres (the Agriculture Technology Centre) covers areas such as
soils and water, agricultural machinery, rural management, animal production, vegetable production
and organic agriculture.

51. The INA started to provide training in organic agriculture to small farmers in 1994 and created the
Specialized Centre on Organic Agriculture in 1997, as part of its Agricultural Technology Centre, to
provide training and carry out research in organic agriculture. The Specialized Centre in Organic
Agriculture is located in Cartago, has an annual budget of CRC 45 million (approximately
USD 136 000) and employs eight professionals who carry out both training and research activities.
The training courses provided by the INA are usually short term and benefited around 1 200 small
farmers between 1998 and 2000.

D. The Views and Policies of Agricultural Research, Extension and Credit Agencies

1. Agricultural research

52. Research on organic agriculture in Costa Rica started in the late eighties with a project that was
funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and implemented jointly by the University
of Costa Rica and the INA. This project studied the use of organic fertilizers (bocashi) as an input in
the production of organic vegetables in the Central region of Costa Rican. The project involved the
participation of Japanese researchers and volunteer professionals, and it was based at the Fabio
Baudrit Experimental Station located in Alajuela. As a result of the project, several farmers and firms,
as well as researchers at the University of Costa Rica, became interested in organic methods of
production, and the INA started to incorporate organic agriculture in its training courses. In addition,
the project was instrumental in promoting the adoption of organic fertilizers by many farmers and
firms producing vegetables in the Central region.

15
53. By the mid-nineties, several institutions had started research projects on subjects related to
organic agriculture. Costa Rica has a highly fragmented agricultural research system, which
comprises a large number of organizations, including the following: (a) producer associations
involved in several crops, including coffee, sugar and bananas, such as the National Coffee
Association and others which have created research institutes to support efforts to improve their
respective crops, (b) several universities, such as the University of Costa Rica and the University of
Heredia, which carry out research through their agricultural or technology faculties and (c)
government organizations, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and the Ministry of
Science and Technology. Universities have been the most advanced in organic research. There has
been substantially less organic research by producer associations and government institutions.

54. As in professional training, the most active university institutions have been EARTH and the
University of Costa Rica. EARTH has been carrying out research on its own campus, mostly on
organic pesticides and fertilizers. By 2001, the University of Costa Rica had about 20 researchers who
were involved in research and educational activities in organic agriculture and who were part of the
university’s organic agriculture programme. There were 15 research projects, mostly in the
development of new pesticides and fertilizers, which were being carried out at the campus in San José
and at the Fabio Baudrit Experimental Station. One of the projects focused on the organic banana
production systems in Talamanca and was being implemented in collaboration with APPTA. Its
objective was to analyse alternative management practices in the organic production of bananas that
were to be sold fresh. The project determined that the typical systems for the organic production of
bananas among members of APPTA in Talamanca may extract a higher amount of nutrients from the
soil than they put into it, indicating that they may not be sustainable over the long term. Thus, the
project was attempting to identify materials and practices to incorporate inputs in the soil, especially
potassium.

55. Finally, the INA has also been implementing research activities in organic agriculture, including
research to determine the proper dosage of organic fertilizers, the development of new methods to
process plants for medical use and the development of organic pesticides.

56. In spite of this progress, much more research in organic agriculture has been due to the initiative
of individual researchers rather than to more or less structured research programmes that may have
resulted from the identification of organic agriculture as a priority by institutions. There is still a great
vacuum in the knowledge in several areas, including the definition of the best dosages for the various
organic inputs under different soil and climate conditions in the country, the development of
technologies to control several pests and diseases, the development of post-harvest technologies and
the incorporation of microeconomic analysis in organic research.

57. In addition, there has been little coordination or exchanges of information among institutions and
professionals involved in research on organic technologies. This is partly due to the characteristics of
the agricultural research system in Costa Rica, which has tended to function without much
coordination, thereby encouraging the duplication of efforts and competition for resources. In the late
eighties, the Government undertook efforts to create a coordinating body. This eventually led to the
creation of the National Commission of Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer in 1989.

58. The commission initially included 15 research organizations – it later incorporated several others
– and established mechanisms to enhance coordination and collaboration. It was given a fourfold
mandate: (a) to advise government ministers on issues related to policies in agricultural research and
the transfer of technologies, (b) to establish national programmes in accordance with government
policy, (c) to manage, monitor and evaluate relevant national programmes and (d) to establish a
national agricultural information system. As one of its first tasks, the commission organized national
programmes on commodities and factors of production, the National Programmes of Agricultural
Research and Technology Transfer (PITTAs), to plan and coordinate activities among all
organizations working on a specific commodity or factor of production (for example, corn and water).

16
Each PITTA had a technical committee on which all the organizations interested in a specific
commodity, as well as key researchers in the field, were represented.19

59. Each national programme elected its own coordinator. The commission then requested the
management of each programme to prepare a diagnostic study based on an analysis of the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats (a so-called “SWOT” analysis) of the new PITTA and its target
commodity or factor of production. The SWOT analysis included an evaluation of the resources
available for research on that commodity in each of the different organizations involved, as well as
production and market opportunities. In addition, the Foundation for the Promotion of Agricultural
Research and Technology Transfer was established in 1996 with a mandate to promote, support and
finance projects in the country related to research, training and diffusion in agricultural technologies.
The foundation started with seed capital of about USD 100 000 and was allowed to plan, discuss and
promote donor projects. Eighteen PITTA programmes were initially established for products such as
avocados, bananas, beans, beef cattle, citrus fruits, corn, milk, potatoes, tomatoes and irrigation. One
of the programmes focused on organic farming.

60. After a slow start, the PITTA on organic farming began making progress under the influence of
the NOAP. The NOAP realized that the formulation of a research programme on organic agriculture
required the participation of all the institutions involved in agricultural research, and it identified
certain guidelines for the approach that research activities should take, including the need to be
systemic, practical and open to aspects other than production, such as the markets for organic
products, economic studies and the processing of organic products. In addition, it argued that farmers
should be involved in the research on organic agriculture and that research should take into account
technologies already developed by farmers.

2. Agricultural extension

61. Unlike the situation in other Central American countries, which have completely suspended the
provision of public extension services to farmers, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
has been providing extension services through its regional and local offices located throughout the
country. However, these extension services have suffered substantial budget cuts that have reduced
the number of extension workers and the availability of vehicles and equipment.

62. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has been working more closely with the CNP since the
mid-nineties. The CNP was created in the sixties to implement a food-security policy based on
ensuring the supply of basic grains to the country’s population at low prices. The agency intervened
actively in the market for basic grains, buying crops from farmers, setting producer and consumer
prices, managing storage facilities and importing grain when domestic production did not cover the
needs of the population. In the early nineties, the Government implemented important policy reforms,
which included the liberalization of the market for basic grains. As a result, the purpose of the CNP
underwent a serious change. It stopped buying the output of farmers and implementing price controls,
and it transferred its storage facilities to farmer associations. In addition, it began promoting
diversification in agriculture, especially among small farmers, through the introduction of new crops,
mainly for export.

63. In carrying out its new mission, the CNP worked jointly with the extension services of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. The CNP had funds to support producers in farmer
associations who were willing to switch to new crops. These funds allowed the CNP to provide
subsidized credit to small farmers so that they could produce perennial crops and to give grants to
farmer associations to cover part of the costs of storage facilities, trucks, or other collective
investments. The process to accomplish this involved the submission of an application by a farmer
association and the formulation of a project jointly by the CNP’s project formulation unit and the
sectoral projects unit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. Once a project had been evaluated

19
See Hobbs et al. (1998).

17
and approved, the CNP worked with the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock to provide technical assistance for project implementation.

64. In the case of Talamanca, the CNP and the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock have concentrated their efforts on promoting the diversification of agriculture through the
cultivation of guinea for export. The CNP promoted the creation in Talamanca of the Guinea National
Council, an organization representing, before the public and private sectors, the interests of guinea
producers, as this county accounts for close to 80% of the national production of guinea. In addition,
it developed and implemented, jointly with the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock, two projects to support small farmer associations. One involved Asoparaiso, an association
of small farmers located in the lowlands, and the other the Guinea National Council. Started in 1997,
the project with Asoparaiso aimed at promoting the cultivation of 1 000 ha of guinea for export. It
involved the construction of processing facilities, the purchase of a truck to transport the product and
construction of an association building for Asoparaiso. The total cost of the project was
CRC 23 million (around USD 69 400), 40% of which was given as a grant and 60% as a five-year
loan, with a grace period of one year and a 19% real interest rate. As a result, Asoparaiso has been
able to sign contracts with Dole and Del Monte, which export the guinea to Europe and the US. The
project with the Guinea National Council, which started in 2001, involves the provision of long-term
credit to farmers who introduce guinea, on condition that they sign contracts with the transnational
banana corporations. The objective was to increase the areas under guinea cultivation to 2 000 ha.

65. The CNP has only recently started to pay some attention to organic production. It has formulated
a project, jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, to support farmer associations
(APPTA, the Ucanehu Association, the Association of Organic Peasant Producers and the Borden
Association of Conservationist and Organic Agriculture) in the production and marketing of organic
bananas to be sold fresh on foreign markets. In addition, it has approved the execution of a feasibility
study for a processing plant for these same farmer associations that would produce banana puree for
export. These initiatives do not involve any substantial change in CNP’s policies or any specific
support for organic agriculture. The agency simply views the organic crops in Talamanca as one more
alternative in the diversification of market opportunities. As one of the CNP technicians in the Bribri
offices has said, “CNP does not have any preference for organic or conventional agriculture. It
supports any production alternative that involves the diversification of production among small
farmers, has good market prospects and shows that it is feasible at project appraisal.”

66. Part of the Huetar Atlantic region and located in Cahuita, Margarita and Sixaola, the offices in
Talamanca of the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock have worked
together with the CNP, concentrating all their human and material resources on assisting farmers who
are growing guinea. Although organic crops in Talamanca have become relevant since the early
nineties, the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock have never focused on
any farmers involved in organic production. In addition, the agency’s extension workers have not had
any training in organic agriculture, so they have not been able to offer organic farmers a service of
acceptable quality.

3. Agricultural credit

67. The introduction of new crops and technologies by small farmers frequently requires credit so that
the farmers can cover new investments or the higher costs of inputs. It was thus important to discover
if the farmers growing organic crops in Talamanca needed credit, and, if they did, how they were
obtaining it.

68. As many other countries have done, Costa Rica created banks to provide long-term and short-term
agricultural credit to farmers. Credit lines have often been tied to flexible conditions because they
have responded to larger development-policy goals. Financial reform in the nineties liberalized
interest rates and led to a sharp decrease in the availability of credit for small farmers from the formal
banking system. At the same time, a great number of new financial institutions, including savings and

18
credit cooperatives, foundations and community banks, emerged to serve the rural population,
frequently with support from NGOs. These financial institutions became very important sources of
credit for small farmers, and they have managed important rural credit portfolios. As a result, access
to credit has not been such an important problem for small farmers in Costa Rica relative to farmers in
other Central American countries.20 These institutions have been even more flexible than banks in the
conditions they impose on credit, including interest rates and collateral.

69. Most organic producers in Talamanca had no access to credit from formal banking institutions or
other institutions. However, this did not generally represent a problem in the organic production of
cacao and bananas because these did not require any significant investment. The organic production
systems in Talamanca involved merely the certification and some improvements in the management
of production systems that were already traditional in the region, which consisted in the (abandoned)
cultivation of cacao mixed within the rain forest. Although the introduction of bananas required some
expenditure for the purchase of plantines, the cost of these was so low that often it could be covered
through the savings of the farmers.

70. While most production activities are carried out through family labour, some of the new activities,
such as the cleaning of fields and keeping cacao plants free of moniliasis, required additional labour.
Thus, farmers needed to have some non-family labour available. This problem affected especially
women farmers, who were sometimes single and did not have the resources to hire wage labour. A
traditional solution used by indigenous farmers was the chichera, whereby work was paid in kind with
food and chicha, a traditional alcoholic beverage obtained by the fermentation of corn. However, the
chichera system was still expensive because of the cost of the food and chicha. Thus, short-term credit
for small farmers, especially for women, to pay for wage labour represented the most important credit
need in the organic cultivation of the crops characteristic of Talamanca.

71. The existence of credit was key for APPTA in allowing it to purchase the output of its members.
APPTA had undertaken a big effort to organize the production of organic crops and establish a system
to monitor its members to assure that they complied with the proper procedures for applying organic
technologies. If APPTA had not had funds available to pay farmers for their cacao and bananas when
the farmers sent their output to the association or very shortly thereafter, other buyers could have
started buying up the production and left the association without any product. In order to avoid this
problem, the US buyers of the cacao provided APPTA with seed capital so that the association could
create a fund to pay farmers immediately after they have sent their product, instead of waiting until
the association receives its payments from the export operations. The existence of these funds was a
key in allowing APPTA to maintain its position in the market for cacao and bananas.

E. The Role of NGOs

72. NGOs have had a very important role in the development of organic agriculture. The most
important have been the following:

(a) The ANAI Association is an NGO of US origin that started working in Talamanca in the mid-
eighties to promote reafforestation activities among indigenous communities. ANAI was key in the
creation of APPTA. It encouraged farmers to establish the association in order to serve their collective
interests and attract foreign donors engaged in the implementation of projects that tended to preserve
the rich environment of Talamanca. Later on, it helped APPTA take the first steps as an organization
and establish contacts with foreign buyers of organic cacao.

(b) Fundación Güilombé is an NGO that, like ANAI, has supported indigenous communities in
Talamanca since the mid-eighties. Its emphasis has been the promotion of organic agriculture,
especially the cultivation of organic bananas and sugar cane by small farmer organizations. Fundación

20
See Barrantes et al. (1997).

19
Güilombé has provided these farmer associations with training and technical assistance in negotiating
contracts with buyers of organic products.

(c) The Education Corporation for Costa Rican Development, which was created in 1984 and has
worked on organic agriculture among small farmers, provides training to small farmers and promotes
the marketing of organic products. It has been organizing fairs every week or two in San José since
1999 at which small farmers sell their organic vegetables. In addition, it has carried out useful studies
on the problems of organic agriculture in Costa Rica, organized workshops to promote discussion
among institutions on the challenges of organic agriculture and participated in discussions on the
development of a legal framework for organic agriculture.

(d) The National Association of Organic Agriculture comprises more than 160 small to large organic
producers. It was created in 1992 to encourage organic agriculture, mainly through training and the
promotion of certification as an instrument to gain access to markets. The association participated
actively in the creation of the first Costa Rican organic certification agency, and it has been providing
training in the certification process to professionals who wish to work as inspectors. In addition, it has
also participated actively in the development of Costa Rican legislation on organic agriculture.

F. The Role of APPTA

73. APPTA has been very important in the growth of organic agriculture in Talamanca and in helping
small farmers gain access to organic markets. APPTA was created in 1987 as a result of efforts of the
ANAI Association. ANAI had been working since the mid-eighties with indigenous communities in
Talamanca to expand reafforestation and the introduction of new species of trees in harmony with the
existing forests. ANAI promoted the creation of APPTA with the idea that it could help attract
international donors who supported indigenous communities in developing countries and that it could
assist in the collective marketing of products. The first collective tasks undertaken by APPTA
included the construction and opening of an input supply store, which is still in operation. In addition,
APPTA began working with environmental organizations and NGOs to further rain-forest
conservation. Soon afterwards, it received support from the Inter-American Foundation, a US
foundation that receives funds from the US Congress to implement poverty-reduction projects in
Latin America, for the construction of buildings and the purchase of equipment.

74. APPTA is not the only farmer association producing organic crops in Talamanca, but it is the
most important in terms of the number of farmers and the volumes sold. Other associations include
the Borden Association of Conservationist and Organic Agriculture, the Association of Organic
Peasant Producers and the Ucanehu Association. These associations involve fewer farmers and
produce only organic bananas.

75. While APPTA was quite successful in attracting international funds to help preserve the rain
forest in a region containing indigenous communities, several members were arguing by the late
eighties that it needed to change its focus so as to embrace more sustainable activities. The
discussions which followed marked the start of a more active role by the organization in the search for
possible markets for the products of members, which eventually led to contacts with buyers of organic
products. APPTA was important in three ways in the effort to gain access to organic markets for its
members:

76. (a) It realized that the possibility existed of certifying as organic the production systems dominant
among the small farmers in Talamanca. In fact, the shift to organic production in Talamanca has not
involved a substantial change in production practices, in contrast to the situation among producers in
other regions, such as the producers of fresh vegetables and coffee in the Central region, where
farmers shifted from conventional production to organic production. In these cases, the transition was
frequently costly, and yields fell significantly. In contrast, cacao and banana production was certified
without any substantial change in the technologies of production. This was possible partly because,
during its search for market opportunities, APPTA, with the help of ANAI, made contact with buyers

20
of cacao in the United States. These buyers were looking for regions in developing countries where
cacao plantations had been abandoned for several years due to pests and disease and were keen to
obtain organic certification for these plantations. Thus, APPTA was able to find a market for crops
that had been abandoned and which were now being produced in such small quantities that they were
not even being harvested.

77. After its success in selling organic cacao, APPTA started to negotiate with firms in Costa Rica to
sell organic bananas. Many of the APPTA farmers grew bananas, in addition to cacao. Most of them
employed the Gros Michel variety, which had been used by transnational corporations on commercial
plantations in Talamanca in the fifties, but which had been abandoned because of the susceptibility to
the Panama disease caused by Fusarium cubensis. After several years of negotiations, APPTA was
able to start selling organic bananas to Trobanex and Gerber, companies of German origin with
facilities in San José, which used them as a raw material in the production of organic baby food
(puree of bananas) that they exported to Europe and the US.

78. (b) It organized the marketing of organic cacao and bananas. Buyers in foreign countries often do
not want to bear the cost of dealing with a large number of individual farmers. They prefer to
negotiate with firms or farmer associations that can deliver the required amounts of product at specific
times of the year. Thus, APPTA was useful to the buyers of organic cacao, as it was able to organize
an efficient marketing system for the purchase of the product from farmers and delivery to the buyers
in a timely manner.

79. (c) It created and managed a monitoring system to ensure that all farmers use organic
technologies properly, to prevent individual farmers from using prohibited inputs and to penalize
those who do not comply. This has been the most important task of APPTA. The international norms
that regulate the certification of organic products require groups of small farmers to organize ‘internal
control systems’. This is a key part of the certification process, along with the annual inspections and
the surprise inspections that are carried out by certification agencies. While these inspections offer
“pictures” of the situation at a particular time, the monitoring systems ensure that organic
technologies are being applied correctly on a day-to-day basis. APPTA has been able to establish an
efficient system that is decentralized and involves the participation of members. Indeed, instead of
creating a central team of technicians who visit farmers regularly, as many farmer associations
elsewhere have done, APPTA relied on local village committees that had been established in the mid-
eighties to carry out reafforestation activities with the support of foreign donors. When APPTA
negotiated the first contract to sell organic cacao, it committed to developing a monitoring system (or
‘internal control system’) as an element in the certification process. APPTA decided to use the village
committees as a basis for the new monitoring system. Each of the 25 new committees has a board, a
president and a treasurer elected by the organic farmers who are members of APPTA in each village.
The local committees receive complaints from members about non-complying farmers and decide on
the penalties to be imposed on these individuals. The interviews carried out among members of
APPTA in the different communities for this study show that the local committees have worked very
well because their purpose is well understood by the communities and their decisions are respected,
even when they are strict. In addition, the system works well because APPTA has provided intensive
training to the communities on the relevance of compliance and the dangers involved for the
communities if the market is lost because someone has not complied.

V. CONCLUSIONS AND PRELIMINARY LESSONS

A. Conclusions

80. The organic production of cacao and bananas has had great and positive impacts on the incomes
and the quality of the lives of small farmers in Talamanca. These farmers lost their main source of
cash income in the late seventies due to an attack of Moniliophtora roreri sp. on their cacao
plantations. As a result, by the early nineties, they were living on subsistence products, mainly corn,
beans, rice and poultry. Organic cacao and bananas have now become important sources of cash

21
income, and, because bananas are harvested about every two weeks all year round and cacao twice a
year, they have generated a more uniform source of income throughout the year.

81. The organic production systems have also had positive effects on the environment of Talamanca,
one of the most diverse ecosystems in Costa Rica and, at the same time, one of the areas most affected
by the expansion of commercial agriculture in rain-forest areas. Organic cacao and bananas are
produced in a production system that is friendly to the rain forest. They are not grown as single crops,
but under the rain forest and in conjunction with other fruits and tubers. Thus, they have contributed
to the conservation of the rain forest and the related wildlife.

82. APPTA has had a major role in the development of organic production for the following reasons:

(i) It has had the technical capacity to be able to search for new opportunities for its members.
APPTA has been able to certify as organic the production systems that its members were already
using and to sell as organic the products that they were already producing, without any significant
change in technology. After its initial success with organic cacao, APPTA was able to negotiate
contracts for the certification and sale of organic bananas, and it negotiated a contract with a
supermarket chain in San José to sell organic fruits, vegetables and tubers. In addition, it undertook a
feasibility study on the production of organic bananas to be sold fresh on the international market.

(ii) As a farmer association that sells its members’ products collectively, APPTA has been able to
obtain economies of scale in marketing and manage volumes that lower the transactions costs of
negotiating and implementing contracts with foreign buyers of cacao, as well as with foreign firms
located in Costa Rica that purchase bananas for the production of organic baby foods.

(iii) It has organized a monitoring system that is effective in ensuring that all members comply with
the organic standards of production, a key requirement in the organic certification process for small
farmer associations. APPTA has provided intensive training to its members that has been instrumental
in convincing them that it is essential to comply with organic technological standards or everyone
would suffer the negative effects, including the loss of the market. The monitoring system has been
effective and inexpensive because, to control compliance, it is based on local committees at the
community level rather than on the participation of external agents or professionals.

83. The organic production of cacao and bananas in Talamanca has not required any significant on-
farm investments because it been based on improvements in the production systems already
predominant among the small farmers. However, the labour needs have been substantial, and it has
often been necessary to hire wage labour. This represents a constraint on the incorporation of women
to organic agriculture, even though the proportion of women in APPTA is high. Women often face
greater difficulties in obtaining the cash to pay for wage labour. The most important investments that
organic farmers have had to make have been off-farm. They have included collective investments in
packing and storage.

84. Government policies and institutions have generally been supportive of organic agriculture,
though they have not had a major part in the emergence of organic cacao and bananas in Talamanca
and in the success of APPTA. Economic policies have created a favourable economic environment,
characterized by high rates of growth and increasing exports. Trade policies have reduced
dramatically the intervention of the state in the marketing of basic grains, and, in addition to
programmes that promoted the cultivation of non-traditional crops, they have encouraged small
farmers to shift to these crops, including organic crops. In addition, key government organizations
working in the agricultural sector – the CNP and the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture
and Livestock – have shifted their emphasis from basic grains to non-traditional crops, though they
have focused mainly on those crops grown with conventional technologies of production and paid
little attention to organic crops.

22
85. Costa Rica made great progress during the nineties in developing institutions to deal specifically
with organic agriculture. The NOAP was created in 1994, and specific laws and regulations
concerning various aspects of organic agriculture were approved in the second half of the nineties.
These actions were very important in developing the international image of Costa Rica and in meeting
new requirements imposed by the EU on exporters of organic products. These new requirements
include the creation of appropriate laws and institutions to deal with organic agriculture so as to
ensure that organic products are analysed and certified according to EU standards. The steps taken by
Costa Rica may make it possible for the country to acquire EU third-country status, which, in the
Latin American region, has been acquire only by Argentina and which will become essential if Costa
Rica is to maintain access to European markets.

86. The development of laws and institutions has had no influence on the production of organic cacao
and bananas in Talamanca, since this emerged several years earlier. However, the laws and
institutions are important because they provide a support system in case exporters face any problems
in foreign markets. In addition, because the new norms require the existence of nationally based
certification agencies, certification costs are likely to fall in the future. Such a fall has not yet occurred
mainly because of the small number of available certification agencies. The NOAP has also become
important in coordinating the actions of the various institutions involved in organic agriculture.

87. Universities and training institutions for agricultural specialists have been incorporating organic
agriculture in their programmes since the mid-nineties, though there is still much room for further
progress. EARTH has a bachelor’s programme in agricultural sciences that is totally oriented towards
sustainable agriculture and explicitly considers the methods used in organic agriculture. The
University of Costa Rica has created an organic agriculture programme that involves all the relevant
research and teaching activities and faculties. It has also established a one-semester course on organic
agriculture as a part of the bachelor’s programme in agricultural sciences, though this is not
compulsory. In addition, the INA recently created a teaching and research station in Cartago to work
exclusively on organic agriculture. As a result of all these efforts, most professionals in agriculture
have a general understanding of organic agriculture and knowledge about some technologies, though
they usually need additional training before they can work on projects that focus on organic
agriculture and require more sophisticated knowledge.

88. Several institutions have been carrying out research on organic agriculture since the early nineties.
The most important ones have been EARTH, the University of Costa Rica and the INA, which have
all focused on the evaluation and development of organic inputs. The many other organizations that
comprise the fragmented agricultural research system in Costa Rica have focused on conventional
technologies and do not carry out any significant work. In any case, these research activities have not
generated a significant pool of organic technologies, so the experimentation of farmers has been the
most important source of new technologies. The NOAP has been making efforts to coordinate the
research activities of various agencies through the PITTA on organic agriculture, a body that includes
the various actors involved and defines policies.

B. Potential Lessons

89. The case of organic production in Talamanca shows some potential lessons for IFAD with respect
to ways to support the adoption of organic crops by small farmers. The following are the most
important lessons:

90. (a) The products of some traditional production systems that are applied by small farmers – for
example, production systems for some crops under the rain forest that preserve the rain forest and the
wildlife that it contains – may be certified as organic with few changes or no change at all in
production practices. These production systems are frequently seen negatively because of the low
productivity of the crops relative to crops in single-crop production systems. However, they have
great positive effects in terms of the conservation of the environment, and the organic certification of
the products may help turn them into more viable alternatives. The effort to obtain organic

23
certification should be complemented by efforts to acquire for the small farmers involved the payment
they deserve for the service they have performed for the environment by relying on these production
systems.

91. (b) Organic production that involves improvements on traditional production systems has the
advantage of not requiring significant on-farm investments. However, some form of credit should be
available to contract labour, the most important factor of production for which farmers needed to pay.
This credit should be available especially for women, who are more exposed to difficulties in carrying
out the labour-intensive tasks usually involved in organic production.

92. (c) Programmes and projects that promote the adoption of organic crops among small farmers
should strongly support farmer organizations and strengthen associations like APPTA. These
organizations could be established around a set of tasks that are essential for the success of the
initiative:

(i) The collective marketing of production. Collective action has a major role in creating economies of
scale in marketing, making it possible to obtain better prices and reduce the transaction costs buyers
face when they negotiate contracts.

(ii) The establishment of a monitoring system. The system must be effective in ensuring that all
farmer-members properly apply the organic methods of production.

(iii) The creation of a system based on local participation. While the monitoring system might be
managed by a specialized technical department within the farmer association, as in the case of many
farmer associations elsewhere, the experience of APPTA shows that a better alternative may be the
establishment of a system based on local organizations that are effective and substantially cheaper.
The organization of such a system would require substantial training during the early stages so that
the members of the association understand the basics of organic agriculture and the reasons why it is
necessary to comply with the organic standards.

93. (d) The existence of a supportive institutional framework may not be essential in the emergence
and development of organic agriculture. Nonetheless, for many reasons, it is important to promote the
establishment of these institutions if they do not already exist:

(i) New requirements imposed by importing countries (mainly the EU) in terms of the development,
in exporting countries, of laws and institutions dealing with organic agriculture have emerged in
recent years. These laws and institutions are intended to ensure that organic products are produced
and certified according to the standards of the importing countries.

(ii) Appropriate laws and institutions dealing with organic agriculture can provide protection to
exporters of organic products if they encounter any problems in foreign markets. In addition, they are
essential in international negotiations that may be crucial in opening up foreign markets.

(iii) National laws and regulations may make it possible to decrease the certification costs faced by
farmers if they lead to the establishment of nationally based certification agencies. This requires
additional efforts to promote competition in the supply of certification services.

(iv) The experience of Costa Rica shows that a government programme dealing with organic
agriculture may be both inexpensive and effective. Such a programme does not need a significant
budget or numerous staff in order to work well. It requires clear ideas and great coordination among
government agencies and actors in the private sector so that they can pool their efforts and avoid
unnecessary duplication.

94. (e) Issues related to organic production must be incorporated in the research and education
programmes of universities and training institutions so as to create a supply of professionals who are

24
adequately trained and to generate a pool of technologies that can address the main problems faced by
farmers. It is essential to support the establishment of such research and training programmes if they
do not already exist because the insufficient supply of professionals may become a great constraint on
projects that seek to support organic agriculture. To improve research means that institutions must
move forward quickly in certain areas, including mainly the determination of the proper dosage levels
of various organic inputs under the different conditions of various regions of a country, the analysis of
the potential negative health effects of some organic inputs (especially pesticides) and economic
analyses of organic technologies and organic production systems.

95. (f) The need for on-farm credit may not be significant in organic production systems with the
characteristics of those in Talamanca, which have required only some improvements in the
management of traditional production systems. However, the increased demand for the labour which
cannot be covered by the labour available in families can be addressed by short-term credit schemes.
This type of credit will be especially necessary for women producers, who are frequently single and
have fewer resources to pay for wage labour. In addition, associations must secure access to funds for
the purchase of the output of their members.

96. (g) Finally, the costs of certification are an important part of the costs of organic production, and
they might be subsidized during the first few years after the adoption of the organic model of
production.

25
 References

Barrantes, Franklin, Harry Clemens, Ricardo Querós and Martín Ugalde (1997), Estudios de la Oferta
y la Demanda de Crédito Rural en Costa Rica: Estudios de Casos en Tres Regiones. San José,
Costa Rica: Centre of Rural Development Studies, Free University of Amsterdam.
Borge, Carlos and Roberto Castillo (1997), Cultura y Conservación en la Talamanca Indígena. San
José, Costa Rica: EUNED.
Deugd, Michelle (2001). Feasibility of Production Systems in Talamanca, Costa Rica. San José,
Costa Rica: Centre of Rural Development Studies, Free University of Amsterdam.
Geography Department of the University of Costa Rica, Commission for the Defense of the Rights of
Indigenous People in Talamanca and Royal Embassy of Denmark (1994), Proyecto de
Ecología Cultural de Talamanca: Encuesta Socioeconómica del Territorio Indígena de
Talamanca. San José, Costa Rica: Geography Department of the University of Costa Rica,
Commission for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous People in Talamanca and Royal
Embassy of Denmark.
Guiracocha, Ginina (2000), Conservación de la Biodiversidad en los Sistemas Agroforestales
Cacaoteros y Bananeros de Talamanca, Costa Rica. Master’s Thesis. Turrialba, Costa Rica:
CATIE.
Holdridge, L. R., L. Poveda and Q. Jiménez (1997), Árboles de Costa Rica, Vol. 1, 2nd edition. San
José, Costa Rica: Scientific Tropical Centre.
Hobbs, Huntington, Fernando Mojica Bentancour, Oscar Bonilla Bolaños, and Emilia Solís Quirós.
“The Creation of a Coordinated National Agricultural Research System: The Case of Costa
Rica. Benchmark Study.” Briefing paper No. 37. The Hague, Netherlands: International
Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR).
IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture) (2001), Aproximación a la Oferta de
Productos Orgánicos en Centroamérica y desarrollo de sus Mercados: Caso de Costa Rica. San
José, Costa Rica: IICA.
National Organic Agriculture Programme (1999), Taller la Producción Orgánica en Costa Rica:
Lineamientos para una Estrategia Concertada, Memoria. San José, Costa Rica: Editorial del
Norte.
National Organic Agriculture Programme (2000), Plan de Acción 2000. San José, Costa Rica:
National Organic Agriculture Programme.
Parrish, Jeffrey, Robert Reitsma, Russel Greenberg, Kevin Skerl, William McLarney, Robert Mack
and James Lynch (1999), “El cacao como cultivo y herramienta de conservación en América
Latina: Frente a las necesidades del agricultor y de la biodiversidad forestal”. Documento de
trabajo América Verde, No. 3b. Arlington, VA: The Natural Conservancy.
Umaña, G. (2001), Prácticas agrícolas en campo y después de la cosecha y uso de extractos
naturales para el mejoramiento de la calidad y disminución del desarrollo de pudriciones
poscosecha de banano orgánico. San José, Costa Rica: Agronomic Research Centre, University
of Costa Rica.
Tsochok, Iriria (1992), Proyecto para el Desarrollo en la Reserva Indígena de Talamanca y la
Conservación de los Parques Nacionales Talamanca (Parque Atlántico) y Cahuitabb. San José,
Costa Rica: Asociación Codebriwak, National Parks Service and Indigenous Development
Associations of Talamanca.

26
 Annex: List of Persons Interviewed

1. Professionals and officials at government agencies, NGOs and farmer associations

Giselle Alvarado Retana, director, Organic Agriculture Programme, University of Costa Rica
Manuel Amador, executive director, Education Corporation for Costa Rican Development
Helga Blanco, researcher, Fabio Baudrit Experimental Station, University of Costa Rica
Jorge Briceño, Organic Agriculture Programme, University of Costa Rica
Mario Castejón, specialist, FAO and Regional Unit for Technical Assistance
Pedro Cussianovich, representative, Agencia de Cooperación Técnica en Costa Rica, Inter-American
Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture
Geovanny Delgado Hidalgo, executive director, Eco-Lógica
Melvin Díaz, CNP Office in Bribri
Carmen Durán, Encargada, Unidad Tecnológica de Agricultura Orgánica, INA
Felicia Echeverría, director, National Organic Agriculture Programme
Patricia Fernández, UPA Nacional
Jorge Hernández, executive director, AUPA, and Coordinador de Capacitación, UPA Nacional
Claudio Gamboa Hernández, director, Fabio Baudrit Experimental Station, University of Costa Rica
Esau Miranda, Sección Agrícola, Productos Gerber de Centroamérica
Carmen Eugenia Morales, consultant, Regional Unit for Technical Assistance
Jorge León, specialist in rural development, Regional Unit for Technical Assistance
Maureen Lizandro, director, Organic Agriculture Programme, UPA Nacional
Encarnación Pereira, Encargado de compras y acopio de cacao, APPTA
Carlos Pomareda, executive president, Servicios Internacionales para el Desarrollo Empresarial
Walter Rodríguez, director, Jugar del Valle
Walter Rodríguez, director, APPTA
Augusto Rojas, coordinator, Organic Agriculture Programme, University of Costa Rica
Guillermo Saborio Ocampo, director of certification, Eco-Lógica
Gabriela Soto, president, National Association of Organic Agriculture, researcher in organic
agriculture, Proyecto Agroforestal CATIE/German Agency for Technical Cooperation
Dany Umaña, Encargado Desarrollo de la Producción de Fruta Fresca, APPTA

2. Farmers

Juanita Baltodano, president, APPTA

Henry Gerrero, producer, Asociación de Productores de Alfaro Ruiz
Juan José Paniagua, producer, Asociación de Productores de Alfaro Ruiz
Otilia Aguirre López, producer, APPTA
Anastasia Hernández Hernández, producer, APPTA
Eufemia Hernández Hernández, producer, APPTA
Darvian Páez, producer, APPTA
Ricardo Ríos, producer, APPTA
Elías Sánchez Sánchez, producer, APPTA

27