Deep Roots

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Family agriculture, innovation and ecosystem

services: Santa Cecilia organic farm

Cecilia Cordero Romero and Isidro Gomez Chinchilla, co-owners, Santa Cecilia organic farm;

and Roberto Azofeifa Rodriguez, Manager, Department of Sustainable Production,

Bureau of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Costa Rica

The Santa Cecilia organic farm story

We started in the 1990s as a dairy farm. Our practices have

always emphasized sustainability and the maximization of natural

resources, organic waste and rational use of water because we saw

it as a need to reduce production costs.

In 2000, we had a crisis and could not continue in dairy, so we

decided to dedicate ourselves to growing crops, but in September

of that same year our youngest son was diagnosed with leukaemia

and had to undergo chemotherapy treatment for three years. This

encouraged us to care more about the health of our family, and

we saw the need to protect our natural resources, so we decided

to make the switch to organic crop production and that’s when we

started to train ourselves on the topic.

Using all the information we had gathered, we started to work and

have gradually been increasing our production. In 2009, we began

our transition period to acquire organic certification under national

legislation and in December 2012 we became certified organic,

which opened to us up to many opportunities to sell our products.

he domestic agricultural sector has historically

had great social, economic and environmen-

tal importance for Costa Rican development.

According to data published by the Secretary of the

Agricultural Sector Planning in 2013, the agricul-

tural sector’s gross domestic product contribution for

2011/12, including primary production and agro-indus-

try, was 14 per cent, ranking fifth in importance. It is

the second largest sector for providing jobs and employs

13 per cent of the economically active population.

Family agriculture occupies an important place in public

policy and is represented in the pillars of the national agri-

cultural development strategy. Due to its social, economic

and environmental functions and the leading role it has

historically played as part of the democratic, social peace

and sustainable development of the country, Costa Rican

society supports government programmes to strengthen

familial agricultural production systems.

Some of the important functions associated with agricul-

tural production in Costa Rica include job creation, safe

food provisioning, strengthening the family unit, protec-

tion of natural resources, recycling of nutrients, product

diversification, conservation and use of genetic resources,

systems development, low use of external inputs, local

energy use, creating opportunities for rural youth, promo-

tion of farmer culture, and distribution of wealth.

The Santa Cecilia organic farm is located in San Jose

province, about 50 kilometres south-west of the city, at an

altitude of 2,150 metres, in the La Cina de Dota village of

Santa Maria de Dota county. The farm is an exemplary case

of what family farming in Costa Rica is like. It is a repre-

sentative sample of family farming in an organic production

system with predominately annual crops.

There are nine members of the family, of which eight

make up the workforce, administration and management

of the natural system and agricultural production. Cecilia

and Isidro are the parents of four boys, two of whom are

married and live on the same farm. They have always been

dedicated exclusively to agricultural production and in

2009 began the change from conventional to organic after

considering the benefits organic production has for those

who manage the crops and for the consumer.

The Gomez Cordero family estate has four hectares of land,

three of which are devoted to agricultural production. The

rest is forest land for windbreaks and protecting wildlife and

water resources. Although the workforce, administration and

management is mainly family, the farm requires a permanent

contracted labourer and one or two additional collaborators.

The majority of the work is physical with some mechanical

support for soil management, fertilizer and pest control appli-

cation, and livestock feed. The farm has its own vehicle with

appropriate conditions for product transport as well.

Some 30 per cent of the farm’s production area is used

for opencast production, while 60 per cent is for protected

agriculture systems. The last 10 per cent is dedicated to

infrastructure for livestock (pigs, sheep, cattle and poultry),

which are very important for providing organic waste for

composting processes and for the production of part of the

energy resource (biogas) that is used for cooking food.

Production is quite diversified. It focuses on perennial

horticultural crops and annual local fruit crops. The main

objective for livestock production is the provision of manure,

but it also serves as financial security for the family during

times of unforeseen additional expenses. The Santa Cecilia

farm offers 25 horticultural varieties and about five fruit

varieties in addition to the pigs, cattle, sheep and poultry.

The farm runs on low external inputs. Soil fertility

maintenance, plant nutrition and crop management all use

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