Carbon Storage in Coffee Shade Tree and Gasification Assessment of Coopedota’s Cooperative

Abstract

This report presents research conducted in conjunction with Coopedota R.L., a coffee producing co-op based out of Santa Maria de Dota, Costa Rica. Within Coopedota’s nearly 900 participating co-op members, this research focuses on the 69 Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified co-op farmers and their production area. The overarching goal of this work is to enhance the net-zero efforts of Coopedota by gaining a deeper understanding of the current carbon stored in their production area and making recommendations for future use of their entire production systems. The team approached the goal through three primary lenses: understanding farmers' perspectives on organic practices, calculating the carbon storage within the RA farmer production area, and evaluating alternatives to coffee cherry’s end of life. To achieve this goal, the team: 1) carried out in-depth interviews with 34 RA famers concerning their thoughts on different certification processes and sustainable farming practices, 2) created 42 permanent plots within RA farmers’ production area, collecting data to create a carbon inventory of the shade biomass, 3) created a life cycle assessment (LCA) of coffee production including gasification and biochar as an end of life alternative to composting for the treatment of coffee pulp. Supporting the first objective, the research team interviewed 34 RA farmers on their sustainability and farming practices, opinions on the new Rainforest Alliance requirements, and the possibility of Coopedota starting an in-house certification process. Results found that RA farmers' main concerns regarding certification processes are having strong enough financial incentives and allowing minor use of chemicals when necessary. Supporting the second objective, the team collected carbon storage data from 34 RA farmers' production areas and 8 farms within Coopedota’s private production area. Each plot was 34 x 34 m and collectively represented 1% of all RA farmers’ production area. On average, each plot contained 194.35 tonnes of CO2e. Total CO2e in the 42 plots was 8162.94 tonnes of CO2e, which was used to estimate the approximate CO2e in all RA farmers’ production areas to be 816,293.50 tonnes. The last objective required the creation of a simplified LCA, which involved coffee cultivation and production of greenhouse gas emissions following technical and agricultural recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Upon review of the LCA, there is potential for carbon negative results as the process of gasification can be used to replace Coopedota’s electrical needs and eliminate methane emissions produced during the end-of-life phase of the coffee production process. Gasification produces biochar as a byproduct, which is a substance that can be added to fertilizer as an enhancement and further aid farmers in the production of sustainable coffee with substantial growth.