Agriculture in Costa Rica

Last updated August 13, 2023

Costa Rican agriculture plays a profound part in the country's gross domestic product (GDP). It makes up about 6.5% of Costa Rica's GDP, and 14% of the labor force.^[1] Depending upon location and altitude, many regions differ in agricultural crops and techniques. The main exports include: bananas, pineapples, coffee, sugar, rice, vegetables, tropical fruits, ornamental plants, corn, potatoes and palm oil.

Almost 10% of Costa Rica's land use is devoted to agriculture. 21% of its land is irrigated mainly with surface water. Development and economic growth within the country is due to hastened agricultural-export production. Costa Rican farmers and multinational corporations within Costa Rica practice two primary methods of farming: Plantation agriculture which includes practices by global companies such as Dole, Chiquita, Del Monte, etc. and sustainable/permaculture. There are also numerous indigenous communities that practice subsistence farming techniques.

Climate

According to the Koppen Climate classification, Costa Rica is considered a tropical-mesothermal climate. The country lies at 10° 0' 0" N / 84° 0' 0" W, causing year-round tropical weather. Average yearly rainfall varies greatly depending on location and altitude. For example, the lowlands generally have more of a dry climate than the highlands, which is generally a misty-foggy climate throughout the year.

Costa Rica has two seasons: a dry season, which is called verano (which translates to summer) and a rainy season, which Costa Ricans call invierno (meaning winter). The dry season begins in December and ends in May, while the rainy season runs from May to November. Costa Rica has very tropical climates.

History

The history of Costa Rica dates back about 3,000 years. Archeological evidence indicates that people were living and growing maize during the time of the Curre´ archaeological phase (1500–300 BC). Fluctuations in pollen types and profusion of charcoal suggest that the intensity of human impact varied over this period.^[2]
The country's name 'Costa Rica' translates to 'Rich Coast' because the first settlers to come across the country (Christopher Columbus; although the country was inhabited by indigenous well before) believed it to hold quantities of gold based on observations of indigenous inhabitants. The rolling mountains and dense jungles were full of biologic diversity but eventually the original belief that Costa Rica was a gold rich country was proved to be wrong.

During the 19th century, coffee and banana cultivation brought some wealth to Costa Rica which resulted in class differentiation. The economy of Costa Rica was considered impoverished until the introduction of coffee in the 1820s. Small farmers were important in the production of coffee but even then wealth from the cash crop was in the hands of the elite.

The Great Banana Strike of 1934, against the United Fruit Company was an important step that would eventually lead to the formation of effective Trade unions in Costa Rica since the company was required to sign a collective agreement with its workers in 1938.^[3]^[4]

Major agricultural products

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has compiled the statistics which follow:^[5]

Rank	Commodity	Production ( $1000)	Production (Mt)
1	Bananas	652108	2365470
2	Pineapples	533070	1870120
3	Cow milk, whole, fresh	286053	916657
4	Indigenous cattle meat	251409	93067
5	Indigenous chicken meat	141146	99091
6	Sugar cane	133433	4100000
8	Fruit, Fresh	89112	255310
9	Indigenous Pigmeat	82997	53991
10	Palm oil	82990	190757 11 70233
11	Rice, paddy	70233	256460
12	Oranges	67640	350000 13
13	Cassava	47186	451700
14	Hen eggs
15	Other melons (inc. cantaloupes)	34485	187325
16	Mangoes, mangosteens, guavas	29958	50000
17	Papayas	17499	61657
18	Tomatoes	16881	45679
19	Avocados	16142	23294
20	Palm kernels	13164	51000

In 2018, Costa Rica produced 3.4 million tons of pineapple (it's the largest producer in the world). In the same year, the country produced 4.4 million tons of sugarcane, 2.5 million tons of banana and 1 million tons of palm oil, these being its main cultures. In addition, it produced 236 thousand tons of orange, 159 thousand tons of cassava, 158 thousand tons of rice, 143 thousand tons of melon, in addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products such as coffee, papaya, potato, tomato etc.^[6]

Methods

Industrial agriculture

The primary aspect of large-scale or plantation agriculture is to produce very large quantities of agricultural goods. This type of agriculture facilitates economies of scale. The more goods produced at such rapid rates, the less expensive the companies have to sell their products for, making them leaders in the world market. For the most part, plantations in Costa Rica are monocultures. These plantations (e.g. Dole, Del Monte, Chiquita) primarily grow bananas, pineapples, sugar, coffee, and ornamental plants. Many crops cultivated through plantation farming are usually genetically modified to improve and hasten growth and increase resistance to pests and diseases.^{[ citation needed ]}

This type of agriculture requires altering and changing much of the landscape. Large sectors of forest are demolished to make way for huge high-yield corporate agricultural fields, which has a major influence on surrounding ecosystems. Many of the methods practiced within these monocultures cause considerable effects on surrounding biodiversity and human communities. These agricultural fields are one of the primary causes of deforestation in Costa Rica.

The clearing of forests makes more land open for plantations to harvest mass quantities of crops. Many plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammal populations are drastically declining. As a result of the heavy use of pesticides used in plantation farming and many domestic flora and fauna are dying off, while some pests, such as the very venomous Fer de lance snake are rapidly multiplying. This is due to the fact that because so much land is cleared the snake species can capture its prey with much more ease, as there is less to hide behind. This along with deforestation then affects the country's biodiversity, which (for a country that is about the size of West Virginia) accounts for 5% of the world's biodiversity.^{[ citation needed ]}

With such large areas of land to farm, this method of primarily monoculture farming requires the use of heavy machinery. This type of farming is also the cause of much of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. But what makes Costa Rica's food system really unsustainable is the globalized commodity trade that has resulted in the integration of the food supply chain and its concentration in only a few transnational corporations. This greatly increases the carbon footprint and energy intensity of the food consumption, and at tremendous social and other environmental costs.^{[ citation needed ]}

Numerous studies^{[ citation needed ]} have been implemented globally to determine the effects of various farming methods. Studies have reported that the energy use in conventional farming systems is 200 percent higher than that of more sustainable systems^{[ dubious – discuss ]}. Research showed that while organic farming typically uses more machine hours than conventional farming, total energy consumption was still a great deal higher in conventional systems because, aside from machine use on the actual farm, energy is used in the production of pesticides and other inorganic farming products.^[7]^{[ full citation needed ]}

Effects on surrounding human communities

Conventional agriculture has put pressure on indigenous customs and traditions. The use of pesticides in Costa Rican agricultural fields has nearly doubled over the past two decades. Currently Costa Rica ranks first in world pesticide use .^[8] Plantation agriculture was a significant contributor to the runoff and other environmental effects caused by the pesticides because over a third of these agrochemicals are used on banana and plantain production. The use of intensive agrochemicals on large plantations make cash crop production to be the most harmful to the surrounding area. ^[9] Indigenous tribes lack legislation that would limit agrochemicals, so much of the runoff affects the rivers used by the Bribri and other indigenous tribes inhabiting Costa Rica.

Effects on biodiversity

Costa Rica's rainforests house 5% of the world's biodiversity and 26% of them are protected in some way.^[10] The advent of genetically modified organisms has become an enormous industry because of the fragile nature of monoculture agribusiness of the United States and conventional plantations the Europeans introduced to Costa Rica. When hundreds of acres are deforested and covered with only one type of one plant, the farmer has elevated the potential for blights, insect infestations, and other disturbances to be disastrous. Nature knows that a diverse community of species not only act as biological controls for each other, but also stabilize the entire area because only some species will be affected by disturbances. Plantation agriculture taken the homes of many biota causing a huge shift in species diversity. One of the most venomous snakes in Costa Rica, the fer de lance, has actually benefited from this type of agriculture. As land is cleared for agro fields, their prey has fewer places to hide, causing a substantial ease in their hunt. Before plantations began to deforesting, fer de lance survival rate was only about 2%. Today, with increasing rates of deforestation and plantation agriculture their survival rate is somewhere between 60 and 70%.^[11]

Permaculture or sustainable farming

Smaller-scale, sustainable agricultural methods are becoming increasingly popular throughout Costa Rica.^[12] With the country's declaration to become the first carbon-neutral country by 2021, this is their first step in attaining such a goal. Crop rotation is one of the practices executed by sustainable farmers in Costa Rica. Since many plants are planted together, one major benefit of crop rotation is that each crop has a different harvesting period providing food and income year-round. This method also reduces soil erosion, a major environmental issue in Costa Rica. Instead of using chemicals to prevent pests many of these farmers harvest plants such as lemongrass and citrosa, natural pest repellents^{[ attribution needed ]}. The use of crop rotation, and seasonally changing crops also deters pests that feed on particular individual types crops since that crop is only around for a short period of time. Companion planting is another method employed by sustainable farmers in Costa Rica^{[ where? ]}. For example, planting mint around vegetables helps deter many pests as the aroma is unappealing to them^{[ citation needed ]}. Planting rue helps in deterring the Japanese beetle, a major agricultural pest. A newer technology method that sustainable farmers in Costa Rica are beginning to employ is the use of plug-flow anaerobic digesters. These machines are "long, narrow, insulated, and heated tanks made of reinforced concrete, steel or fiberglass with a gas tight cover to capture the biogas. It is loaded with thick manure of 20-30 percent total solids. When the manure reaches the outlet it discharges over an outlet weir arranged to maintain a gas tight atmosphere but still allow the effluent to flow out. Biogas produced by the digester is used to heat the digester to the desired temperature. Excess biogas can be used to run an engine generator. Heat can also be recovered from the engine generator and used for space or floor heating, water heating or steam production to offset the cost of purchased electricity, propane, natural gas or gas oil used on the farm for daily operations".^[13]

Leftover manure is then mixed with soil and added to the cropland. Around 18 percent of all greenhouse gas admissions can be attributed to animal agriculture today, therefore employing plug-flow digesters is another step Costa Rican sustainable farmers are taking to reduce greenhouse gas admissions.^{[ citation needed ]} With more sustainable farming methods employed in Costa Rica, less energy is generally required from the farmer because the agriculture system sustains itself.

Subsistence farming

This type of farming is practiced predominately by the indigenous tribes in Costa Rica. The main activity of the BriBri tribe is agriculture. The Limon region (82.8° – 83.3°W, 9.6°- 9.3°N) is one of the main regions where indigenous farmers practice subsistence agroforestry. These tribes rely on natural growth within the forest as well as small sustainable gardens to produce enough food for a clan to survive on. The Bribri tribe of Talamanca reside in the Puerto Limon region and cultivate more than 120 wild and domestic crop species, providing provisions, building materials, medicine, and trade items for the people.^[14]

Any food or resources left over are quickly traded for other commodities the clan cannot produce for themselves (i.e. medicine, food, clothes, etc.). BriBri Indians implement different agricultural techniques to maintain and enrich their native traditions. Agroforestry, an interactive practice of positioning forest flora amongst crops that have mutualistic relationships is one of these traditions. "They use natural nutrient cycling and symbiotic relationships between plants, insects, birds, bats, and other animals to provide natural mechanisms for pest control, incorporate soil rejuvenating legume trees, and produce relay harvests throughout the year".^[14] Some other practices these subsistence farmers adhere to include: maintaining their natural resource base, manage pests and diseases through internal regulating mechanisms rather than pesticides and other chemicals, and relying on minimum artificial inputs from outside the farm system.^[14]

Many of these Costa Rican communities are beginning to the effects of globalization as many plantations are buying up land and invading indigenous areas. Recent government action has led to mitigation of such effects. "On September 12, the Administrative Tribunal of Contention ordered the relevant federal agencies – the Institute of Agrarian Development (IDA) and the National Commission of Indigenous Affairs (CONAI) – to expropriate more than 11,000 acres of land to be returned to the Bribri community of the Kekoldi reservation—this part of Bribri territory is currently occupied by non-indigenous people."^[15]

Costa Rican agricultural research and MSME support

Costa Rica's National Center for Food Science and Technology (Centro Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos (CITRA)) seeks "to research and develop knowledge in food science and technology closely linked to the agri-food sector in order to innovate, increase its competitiveness, and generate high-quality food."^[16] It provides assistance to the Rural and Small Business Agroindustrial Development Program (Proyecto de Desarrollo Agroindustrial Rural y Pequeña y Mediana Empresa (DAIR-PYMES)). DAIR-PYMES provides scientific and technological support to rural agroindustrial MSME s (Micro, Small, and Medium sized Enterprises). ^[17]

Related Research Articles

In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monoculture is widely used in intensive farming and in organic farming: both a 1,000-hectare cornfield and a 10-ha field of organic kale are monocultures. Monoculture of crops has allowed farmers to increase efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting, mainly by facilitating the use of machinery in these operations, but monocultures can also increase the risk of diseases or pest outbreaks. Diversity can be added both in time, as with a crop rotation or sequence, or in space, with a polyculture or intercropping.

Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming, is an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. It originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Certified organic agriculture accounts for 70 million hectares globally, with over half of that total in Australia. Organic farming continues to be developed by various organizations today. Biological pest control, mixed cropping, and the fostering of insect predators are encouraged. Organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally-occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances. For instance, naturally-occurring pesticides such as pyrethrin are permitted, while synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are generally prohibited. Synthetic substances that are allowed include, for example, copper sulfate, elemental sulfur, and ivermectin. Genetically modified organisms, nanomaterials, human sewage sludge, plant growth regulators, hormones, and antibiotic use in livestock husbandry are prohibited. Organic farming advocates claim advantages in sustainability, openness, self-sufficiency, autonomy and independence, health, food security, and food safety.

Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming, conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital,labour, agrochemicals and water, and higher crop yields per unit land area.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to sustainable agriculture:

Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services. There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices. Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change, water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes; it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes. Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems. It involves preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources—as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas. Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture, agroforestry, mixed farming, multiple cropping, and crop rotation.

Intercropping is a multiple cropping practice that involves the cultivation of two or more crops simultaneously on the same field. The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources or ecological processes that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop.

In agriculture, polyculture is the practice of growing more than one crop species in the same space, at the same time. In doing this, polyculture attempts to mimic the diversity of natural ecosystems. Polyculture is the opposite of monoculture, in which only one plant or animal species is cultivated together. Polyculture can improve control of some pests, weeds, and diseases while reducing the need for pesticides. Intercrops of legumes with non-legumes can increase yields on low-nitrogen soils due to biological nitrogen fixation. However, polyculture can reduce crop yields due to competition between the mixed species for light, water, or nutrients. It complicates management as species have different growth rates, days to maturity, and harvest requirements: monoculture is more amenable to mechanisation. For these reasons, many farmers in large-scale agriculture continue to rely on monoculture and use crop rotation to add diversity to the system.

Agroforestry refers to any of a broad range of land use practices where pasture or crops are integrated with trees and shrubs. This intentional combination of agriculture and forestry has multiple benefits, such as greatly enhanced yields from staple food crops, enhanced farmer livelihoods from income generation, increased biodiversity, improved soil structure and health, reduced erosion, and carbon sequestration. Trees in agroforestry systems can also produce wood, fruits, nuts, and other useful products with economic and practical value. Agroforestry practices are especially prevalent in the tropics, especially in subsistence smallholdings areas with particular importance in sub-Saharan Africa. However, due to its multiple benefits, for instance in nutrient cycle benefits and potential for mitigating droughts, it has been adopted in the USA and Europe.

In agriculture, monocropping is the practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land. Maize, soybeans, and wheat are three common crops often monocropped. Monocropping is also referred to as continuous cropping, as in "continuous corn." Monocropping allows for farmers to have consistent crops throughout their entire farm. They can plant only the most profitable crop, use the same seed, pest control, machinery, and growing method on their entire farm, which may increase overall farm profitability.

The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) with staff in more than 20 countries and operations in more than 70 countries. It was founded in 1987 by Daniel Katz, an American environmental activist, who serves as the chair of the board of directors. The NGO states that its mission is “to create a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities.” Its work includes the provision of an environmental certification for sustainability in agriculture. In parallel to its certification program, the Rainforest Alliance develops and implements long-term conservation and community development programs in a number of critically important tropical landscapes where commodity production threatens ecosystem health and the well-being of rural communities.

The Bribri are an Indigenous people in eastern Costa Rica and northern Panama. Today, most Bribri people speak the Bribri language or Spanish.

Shade-grown coffee is a form of the crop produced from coffee plants grown under a canopy of trees. A canopy of assorted types of shade trees is created to cultivate shade-grown coffee. Because it incorporates principles of natural ecology to promote natural ecological relationships, shade-grown coffee can be considered an offshoot of agricultural permaculture or agroforestry. The resulting coffee can be marketed as "shade-grown".

Coffee production has played a key role in Costa Rica's history and continues to be important to the country's economy. In 2006, coffee was Costa Rica's number three export, after being the number one cash crop export for several decades. In 1997, the agriculture sector employed 28 percent of the labor force and comprised 20 percent of Costa Rica's total GNP. Production increased from 158,000 tons in 1988 to 168,000 tons in 1992. The largest growing areas are in the provinces of San José, Alajuela, Heredia, Puntarenas, and Cartago. The coffee is exported to other countries in the world and is also exported to cities in Costa Rica.

A banana plantation is a commercial agricultural facility found in tropical climates where bananas are grown.

Agroecology is an applied science that involves the adaptation of ecological concepts to the structure, performance, and management of sustainable agroecosystems. In Latin America, agroecological practices have a long history and vary between regions but share three main approaches or levels: plot scale, farm scale, and food system scale. Agroecology in Latin American countries can be used as a tool for providing both ecological, economic, and social benefits to the communities that practice it, as well as maintaining high biodiversity and providing refuges for flora and fauna in these countries. Due to its broad scope and versatility, it is often referred to as "a science, a movement, a practice."

Crop diversity or crop biodiversity is the variety and variability of crops, plants used in agriculture, including their genetic and phenotypic characteristics. It is a subset of and a specific element of agricultural biodiversity. Over the past 50 years, there has been a major decline in two components of crop diversity; genetic diversity within each crop and the number of species commonly grown.

Deforestation is a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystems in Costa Rica. The country has a rich biodiversity with some 12,000 species of plants, 1,239 species of butterflies, 838 species of birds, 440 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 232 species of mammals, which have been under threat from the effects of deforestation. Agricultural development, cattle ranching, and logging have caused major deforestation as more land is cleared for these activities. Despite government efforts to mitigate deforestation, it continues to cause harm to the environment of Costa Rica by impacting flooding, soil erosion, desertification, and loss of biodiversity.

The environmental impact of agriculture is the effect that different farming practices have on the ecosystems around them, and how those effects can be traced back to those practices. The environmental impact of agriculture varies widely based on practices employed by farmers and by the scale of practice. Farming communities that try to reduce environmental impacts through modifying their practices will adopt sustainable agriculture practices. The negative impact of agriculture is an old issue that remains a concern even as experts design innovative means to reduce destruction and enhance eco-efficiency. Though some pastoralism is environmentally positive, modern animal agriculture practices tend to be more environmentally destructive than agricultural practices focused on fruits, vegetables and other biomass. The emissions of ammonia from cattle waste continue to raise concerns over environmental pollution.

Farming systems in India are strategically utilized, according to the locations where they are most suitable. The farming systems that significantly contribute to the agriculture of India are subsistence farming, organic farming, industrial farming. Regions throughout India differ in types of farming they use; some are based on horticulture, ley farming, agroforestry, and many more. Due to India's geographical location, certain parts experience different climates, thus affecting each region's agricultural productivity differently. India is very dependent on its monsoon cycle for large crop yields. India's agriculture has an extensive background which goes back to at least 9 thousand years. In India, in the alluvial plains of the Indus River in Pakistan, the old cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa experienced an apparent establishment of an organized farming urban culture. That society, known as the Harappan or Indus civilization, flourished until shortly after 4000 BP; it was much more comprehensive than those of Egypt or Babylonia and appeared earlier than analogous societies in northern China. Currently, the country holds the second position in agricultural production in the world. In 2007, agriculture and other industries made up more than 16% of India's GDP. Despite the steady decline in agriculture's contribution to the country's GDP, agriculture is the biggest industry in the country and plays a key role in the socio-economic growth of the country. India is the second-largest producer of wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane, silk, groundnuts, and dozens more. It is also the second biggest harvester of vegetables and fruit, representing 8.6% and 10.9% of overall production, respectively. The major fruits produced by India are mangoes, papayas, sapota, and bananas. India also has the biggest number of livestock in the world, holding 281 million. In 2008, the country housed the second largest number of cattle in the world with 175 million.

The Cabécar are an indigenous group of the remote Talamanca region of eastern Costa Rica. They speak Cabécar, a language belonging to the Chibchan language family of the Isthmo-Colombian Area of lower Central America and northwestern Colombia. According to census data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica, the Cabécar are the largest indigenous group in Costa Rica with a population of nearly 17,000.

References

↑ CIA - The World Factbook. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/costa-rica/
↑ Clement, Rachel M.; Horn, Sally P. (2001). Pre-Columbian land-use history in Costa rica: a 3000-year record of forest clearance, agriculture and fires from laguna zoncho. Holocene, 11(4), 419-426.
↑ Bucheli, Marcelo (February 2005). Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia, 1899-2000. ISBN 9780814769874.
↑ Michael Shafer, D. (1994). Winners and Losers: How Sectors Shape the Developmental Prospects of States. ISBN 0801481880.
↑ fao.org: "FAO Country Profiles - Costa Rica. (2011)."
↑ Costa Rica production in 2018, by FAO
↑ Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Lim Li Ching
↑ Agriculture Statistics > Pesticide use (most recent) by country.. Retrieved on 11 July 2013.
↑ Whatley, Neil. Agroecology. Retrieved from <http://www.agroecology.org/CaseStudies_NCAmerica.html>
↑ Biodiversity in Costa Rica. (2011). InBio: Instituto Nacionale de Biodiversidad. Retrieved 26 April 2011 from < "Biodiversity". Archived from the original on 2011-11-18. Retrieved 2011-11-09.>
↑ Don Juan's Farm in Monteverde Costa Rica
↑ "Costa Rica moves towards sustainable, low-emission agriculture".
↑ Plug flow digesters. (2003, August). Retrieved from http://www.biogas.psu.edu/plugflow.html Worldstat.info (2013). Costa Rica.
1 2 3 Bribri of costa rica. Retrieved from http://www.agroecology.org/Case_Studies/Bribri.html Archived 15 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Kearns, Rick. (2011). A historic victory in costa rica . Retrieved from http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/a-historic-victory-in-costa-rica/
↑ "National Center in Food Science and Technology (CITA, for its acronym in Spanish)". Portal de la Investigación - Universidad de Costa Rica. 2017-04-03. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
↑ "Proyecto: DAIR | CITA". cita.ucr.ac.cr. Retrieved 2023-08-12.

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[1] CIA - The World Factbook. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/costa-rica/

[2] Clement, Rachel M.; Horn, Sally P. (2001). Pre-Columbian land-use history in Costa rica: a 3000-year record of forest clearance, agriculture and fires from laguna zoncho. Holocene, 11(4), 419-426.

[3] Bucheli, Marcelo (February 2005). Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia, 1899-2000. ISBN 9780814769874.

[4] Michael Shafer, D. (1994). Winners and Losers: How Sectors Shape the Developmental Prospects of States. ISBN 0801481880.

[5] .org: "FAO Country Profiles - Costa Rica. (2011)."

[6] Costa Rica production in 2018, by FAO

[7] Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Lim Li Ching

[8] Agriculture Statistics > Pesticide use (most recent) by country.. Retrieved on 11 July 2013.

[9] Whatley, Neil. Agroecology. Retrieved from <http://www.agroecology.org/CaseStudies_NCAmerica.html>

[10] Biodiversity in Costa Rica. (2011). InBio: Instituto Nacionale de Biodiversidad. Retrieved 26 April 2011 from < "Biodiversity". Archived from the original on 2011-11-18. Retrieved 2011-11-09.>

[11] Don Juan's Farm in Monteverde Costa Rica

[12] "Costa Rica moves towards sustainable, low-emission agriculture".

[13] Plug flow digesters. (2003, August). Retrieved from http://www.biogas.psu.edu/plugflow.html Worldstat.info (2013). Costa Rica.

[agroecology-14] 1 2 3 Bribri of costa rica. Retrieved from http://www.agroecology.org/Case_Studies/Bribri.html Archived 15 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine

[15] Kearns, Rick. (2011). A historic victory in costa rica . Retrieved from http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/a-historic-victory-in-costa-rica/

[16] "National Center in Food Science and Technology (CITA, for its acronym in Spanish)". Portal de la Investigación - Universidad de Costa Rica. 2017-04-03. Retrieved 2023-08-12.

[17] "Proyecto: DAIR | CITA". cita.ucr.ac.cr. Retrieved 2023-08-12.

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