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Organic and biodynamic farming renounces the use of chemical substances, in particular synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. However, this does not mean that nothing is added and the harvest is waited for passively. Rather, many techniques are implemented to improve the natural fertility of the soil, thus strengthening the health of plants and their natural resistance to diseases and attacks from parasites. Moreover, this farming system supports useful insects, birds and other animals feeding on undesired insects, thus maintaining the balance of the ecosystem.
Columbian coffee is grown in Sierra Nevada at a 1200/1600 metre altitude, where the climate selects many of the insects attacking plants. Sweet coffee beans can grow healthy if helped by the work of human beings.
Natives are necessary for this type of work, since those high-altitude areas are levelled and poorly connected through narrow stone paths which cannot be reached by four-wheel vehicles and only the natives can move skilfully.
The organic fertilisation of the soil takes place fully naturally through:
• correct composting (treatment of all the vegetal waste in dedicated piles);
• mulching (covering the soil to prevent drying and foster the survival of microorganisms contributing to fertility);
• crop rotation and the proximity of crops “helping” each other contribute to the regeneration of the soil and help it supplying perfectly balance food rich in nutrients.
Coffee is hand-picked to select ripe beans and is transported to the valleys by human beings or mules.
Beans are carefully washed in clean water and dried under the warm Caribbean sun. The harvest is cared for and “pampered” because it is the only source of income of the natives who everyday have to fight against the main enemy of Colombia: marijuana.
The project was developed at the end of the 1990s and originates from the deep respect for nature and a people who loves the land and respect it as a source of life. The United States contributed to the project by allocating a financial fund devoted to organic farming and today, in addition to coffee, palm trees for the extraction of oil, sugar cane to produce sugar, bananas, coconuts and pineapples are grown in those farms. To encourage organic farming, the local labourers are paid more than those who are exploited in the plantations of marijuana and cocaine, who in addition run serious risks.
Clearly, during its development the project had to face a number of obstacles posed by the Colombian authorities that had focussed on drug as the main and highly rewarding crop and did not want to supply the land for alternative crops.
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