Producers reinvest payments from Asómbrate to harvest higher income

The payments from Asómbrate for carbon capture can be a relief for some producers facing adversities or extra money for their crops.

Coffee plantations on the Limasol farm, in La Sierra, Cauca, could feel the hardship that Diego Édinson López was going through at the beginning of 2023. His wife, Yuliet Jiménez, was hospitalized between October and November, facing the Guillain-Barré syndrome. This disease causes the immune system to attack the nervous system, potentially leading to paralysis. Diego, a high-quality coffee producer in the mountains of the Torres village, had to spend around 3 million pesos to support her during those difficult days, diverting funds needed to fertilize his crop.

His primary concern remained his wife's recovery in the following months. However, the payments that he received from Asómbrate, almost 2 million pesos for the carbon captured by the trees in his crop, alleviated one of his financial burdens.

“Thank God we received that incentive from the Asómbrate program, and we were able to deal with the need we had. We keep working with my family to overcome life's adversities every day. We have God as our main ally,” explains Diego. His words flow out like a prayer.
Diego Édinson López, caficultor de La Sierra, Cauca

Asómbrate payments, resources coming from trees

Other small coffee and cocoa producers in 17 departments have benefited from Asómbrate payments through the voluntary carbon markets. The resources from selling Carbon Removal Units (CRUs) captured by trees in their crops become investments that will multiply with the harvest. Additionally, crops benefit from better production practices under climate-smart agriculture.

At the Miralindo farm, in San Vicente de Chucurí, María Elena Cardozo learned about the Asómbrate program thanks to the Federation of Cocoa Growers (Fedecacao)Her first payment was 500,000 pesos in April this year. She plans to use that money to replant her land, in the Esmeralda village. “It is money that you don’t receive every day. To get it, you have to work hard.”

“I plan to invest the money that Solidaridad has given to us in maintaining the crop, fertilizers, or maybe a scythe,” said Essaú Porras, a cocoa farmer at Rionegro, Santander, who received 1.1 million pesos.

Mariela Pabón also joined Asómbrate on the recommendation of Fedecacao. She never thought that having trees on her farm would bring her profit, but she is happy with the extra income to invest in fertilizers. For her, there is another gain: learning about sustainability. “Without shade you cannot grow crops, because now the climate has changed a lot. The sun is too hot, so the plants start to have many diseases and they go bad.”

“I am very happy in the program and I encourage those who have not joined yet to do it, so that they can receive the help coming from carbon credits,” an invitation by Miguel Ortiz, from San Pablo, Bolívar. The money he received from the Asómbrate program will be used to maintain his crop.

More producers are trained to receive payments from Asómbrate

Asómbrate is an initiative by Solidaridad to encourage coffee and cocoa smallholder producers to develop their crops under sustainability practices through agroforestry systems. This knowledge gives them the possibility of accessing the carbon credit market through the Acorn platform, developed by Acorn, Rabobank.

For every hectare planted under an agroforestry system, a smallholder producer can capture between four and six tonnes of carbon per year. The Asómbrate program ensures a minimum price of 20 EUR for every tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere, of which 80% is paid to producers and the remaining 20% covers platform administration costs and support by Rabobank and Solidaridad, respectively.

Thanks to satellite technology and the partnership with Microsoft, Asómbrate enables remote measurements of the carbon captured in the enrolled crop areas, ensuring data transparency in carbon markets while reducing verification and monitoring costs. Currently, the program includes 30,000 smallholder producers in 17 departments. The strategy achieves cleaner air by taking care of trees. According to the measurements, farmers enrolled in Asómbrate have removed more than 36,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, generating total payments over 2.6 billion Colombian pesos to their beneficiaries.