Today we continue investigating Syntropic Farming with Daniel from the Mata do Lobo farm in Brasil. In the past 4 years, they have been working solutions to scale these complex agroforestry systems, soon reaching 50ha planted. Daniel and his partner, Maria Vittoria, have accumulated some tremendous experience as they build one of the most innovative coffee plantations out there. In this episode, you will find out what is the difference between the health and quality of agroforestry coffee and conventional coffee. You will also understand how they are striking a balance between efficiency and complexity - in order to integrate the principles of Syntropic whilst managing these systems at scale. This was a highly practical conversation, inspired by the questions we received from our listeners on social media. We hope you enjoy!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
03:47 Daniel’s story
12:35 Objective of the agroforestry plot
16:01 How do you manage inputs?
20:02 What makes Syntropic less input intensive?
22:39 What does the agroforestry produce?
31:09 How much diversity is integrated to the coffee crop?
35:51 How is the coffee crop responding to the Syntropic system?
41:46 How are coffee yields expected to perform in comparison to conventional?
45:41 How did he plant so many trees effectively?
51:01 How many people working on the agroforestry system?
55:23 How do you manage so much biomass?
01:07:26 What harvesting process for coffee?
01:12:16 What potential of mechanisation for Syntropic systems?
01:14:57 What commercialisation strategy?
01:19:44 Is he planning a processing facility?
01:21:48 Could Syntropic systems work in a European context?
01:24:08 Where does he get knowledge from?
• RESOURCES
https://www.instagram.com/matadolobo/?hl=en
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