Written by: Sarah Leonhardt
Luis Felipe Arias, CEO of regenerative agriculture company Biodiversal, is not shy about holding back the bad news:
“By 2050, the suitable area to grow coffee in the world is going to reduce by 50%.”
“Enjoying a good cup of coffee,” Arias warns, “is going to be really, really difficult, and really, really expensive.”
It’s certainly a realization to make coffee drinkers sit up and spit out their morning cup (or not, since the drink is so precious). The cause of this forecast is land degradation, a critical worldwide concern that affects more than just coffee crops. It’s estimated that 24 billion tons of fertile soil are lost annually, and over the next 25 years, land degradation could reduce global food production by as much as 12%. An insecure global food supply contributes to soaring food prices, increased poverty, social instability, and displacement. Meanwhile, degraded land stops storing carbon, exacerbates climate change, disrupts critical ecosystems, and endangers biodiversity.
Agriculture is poised to contribute to or interrupt this global problem. While we can point to anthropogenic causes like agricultural activities as one of the major reasons land degradation has occurred thus far, the lucky fact for human beings is that it’s not if you farm, but how you farm, that matters.
Companies like Biodiversal know this. Biodiversal teaches coffee growers around Colombia about biochar, a method of burning prunings, stumps, and other agricultural waste products into an organic charcoal that sequesters carbon while offering crop benefits.
“Biochar has the possibility to support double its weight in water. The capacity of soil to retain [water], in summers or with high temperatures, is a must,” Arias says. Increased organic matter in soil is another benefit. “We started with like 4% of organic matter in soil, and right now we are into 8% to 10% in organic matter — that is a huge, huge increase.”
Not only do coffee farmers get to improve crop conditions through biochar, but they can turn this sustainable practice into cash. Through Biodiversal’s value sharing mechanism, farmers receive carbon credits for their work.
“They [don’t have to] wait two or three years to see the benefits in soil and productivity — in the first moment, they are achieving income."
Biodiversal is just one of an array of innovative agro companies who prove earning profits can happen alongside social and environmental returns. In fact, Colombia saw the most agricultural growth of any sector in 2020 thanks to production of coffee, cocoa, fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy, and is full of forward-thinking, sustainably minded agro-companies who want to do things differently.
There’s only one thing holding these forward-thinking companies back: scale. To really move the needle on restoring land — securing the planet’s health and our global food supply — sustainable agro companies need to expand. Often, investor interest exists, but it can be hard for many innovative agro companies to meet the proper ticket size and be investment-ready.
Enter: reVive, an Investment Development Hub (IDH) in Colombia and the result of Conservation International’s project, "Building the next generation Land Degradation Neutrality investment pipeline through national Technical Assistance Hubs." reVive is the very first technical assistance hub in a plan to expand worldwide, solving the problem of scale and helping companies like Biodiversal expand their work and transform agriculture.
Launched just over one year ago, reVive is already shaping Colombia’s agricultural landscape. After reaching 130 potential investees in Colombia, 16 applications were received, and five technical assistant projects were formulated and approved. Pilar Jiménez, leader of the implementation of the Hub in Colombia, shares that this year “the Hub launched its newly upgraded investment readiness assessment tool,” allowing them to “identify gaps” and “design tailored technical assistance.”
“Through its investment readiness work, the reVive Hub has helped uncover critical gaps in the Colombian context — both at the producer and financial institution level — such as the lack of incentives for adopting sustainable practices, limited technical capacity within FIs to tailor financial products or establish robust Environmental and Social Management Systems, and the absence of TA budgets to support on-farm transitions,” Jiménez says.
“With reVive, we have a huge opportunity to figure out how we are going to scale our program,"
Arias shares. “We proved our concept. We proved our model….right now, the challenge is how to scale that [from] 360 coffee growers [to the] opportunity in Colombia — 500,000 coffee growers.”
reVive is helping Biodiversal create a strategy that enhances trust and reliability between growers and buyers in the voluntary carbon market, reviewing the company’s standards, practices, and technology.
“Through reVive, we’re helping Biodiversal engage with investors and companies to explore how the Biochar program can support their climate goals. This includes shaping financing strategies — such as insetting, debt, or equity — and ensuring the initiative is positioned to deliver long-term environmental and social impact,” Jiménez says.
When asked what the most important thing reVive has provided thus far, Arias answers, “The 360 degree vision they have of the market."
"They have a real understanding about what's going on in the field.”
As Biodiversal and reVive progress further into their partnership, Arias’ goal remains “to show to the consumer the real impact of every single farmer involved in our program.”
“If you love coffee — if you enjoy, every morning, your cup of coffee, you have to think about how you are going to be able to maintain that pleasure in the long term.”
Credits:
Conservation International