Hendrix back from Costa Rican ag sustainability trip

    Taylor Hendrix is back in the U.S. and nearly done with her term as state FFA officer after spending March 17-26 traveling across the Central American nation of Costa Rica with fellow young agriculture enthusiasts.
    The 10 officers return armed with new sustainable farming strategies from Costa Rican ranchers and producers of bananas, sugarcane, pineapples, cocoa, coffee and more.
    Hendrix said that the plantations visited by the group were self-supporting and creative in their pursuit of sustainability.
    “At pretty much any farm we went to, they were able to sustain the facilities with what they had on the farm,” she said.
    At one farm, she saw citronella grown among other crops to repel insects. Several operations demonstrated systems for collecting and repurposing rainwater, and all used biodigesters — rubber sleeves used to process organic waste and convert it into fertilizer. Other farms used earthworms to handle animal waste.
    Costa Rican farmers do this all on a tight budget. Hendrix estimated that many make as little as $600 per month.
    Even though rainwater collection is restricted in Colorado, Hendrix said she thinks some of the techniques used overseas could be adapted for farms on the Eastern Plains.
    Biodigesters, she said, could be implemented if a cost-effective way of emulating Costa Rica’s native heat and humidity were developed. The tropical environment helps to kick-start decomposition, she said, and microorganisms in the soil prevent the operation from smelling bad.
    Ranchers also raise cattle that are better suited to the tropical climate than the Angus breeds popular in Phillips County. Hendrix saw Simmental and Brahman raised on one ranch and calved throughout the year.
    FFA officers got the chance to watch the production of luxuries like coffee beans and cocoa beans that are mostly grown outside of the U.S. They visited plantations where coffee beans are roasted as well as raised, and had the chance to taste raw cocoa beans, which Hendrix said taste nothing like store-bought chocolate.

The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.