A More Regenerative Agronomy in Daily Practices

In June, we visited farms from SMC and COCARIVE, with the opportunity to look at how a more regenerative agronomy is actually practiced, and why it is becoming increasingly integrated into everyday decisions and lifestyles.

Across roughly a dozen farms, ranging from 16 hectare family sitios to a 6,000 hectare operation producing 27,000 bags a year, a consistent picture emerged demonstrating agronomic practices are not a uniform checklist. Each farm will have individual and customised responses to soil, altitude, water and labour, but all are aimed at the same underlying goal of keeping the coffee tree’s ecosystem healthy enough to keep producing, generation after generation.

The most visible pattern across farms is the deliberate integration of non-coffee species into the growing system as functional infrastructure. At Fazenda Aracacu, a 380 hectare farm with 244 hectares dedicated to coffee, they are now carbon negative with each bag produced claimed to be 10kg carbon negative. At this farm, biodiversity is engineered with precision – one row of non-coffee trees for every eleven rows of coffee, and one shade or support tree for every six coffee trees across roughly one million plants. The Fedegoso tree is planted specifically near coffee to support pollinators and provide biological control against leaf-eating insects as a working alternative to blanket pesticide use. During flowering, the farm partners with a beekeeping operation that places hives directly among the plants, improving pollination while generating honey sales that fund a local social project. This creates a symbiotic and full circle relationship between the two. The coffee benefits from the bees, the bees need the flowers, and the resulting honey funds people rather than chemical inputs.

At Sitio Baixadao, higher in altitude, the biodiversity strategy shifts to ground cover rather than canopy. Sunflowers, turnip, buckwheat, and millet are just some of the species planted between coffee rows to suppress invasive grasses, protect topsoil from rain erosion and, once they die back, decompose into fertiliser. The choice of species is not incidental. Helisson, who manages the farm with his father Sebastian, explained that they favour short life cycle cover crops to keep a continuous rotation of decomposition and renewal going. This is in contrast to farms like Aracacu that make use of longer cycle species like Fedegoso. Both approaches solve the same problem of feeding the soil without synthetic inputs, but the solution is tailored to what the land and climate require. The cover crops carry a secondary benefit too in that they attract lacewings and butterflies, which prey on pests that would otherwise damage the coffee.

Water management emerged as a second major theme, and one with direct implications for both quality and climate resilience. At Fazenda Palmital, a 1929-founded operation now run by its fifth generation, a farm lake whose original purpose was for irrigation incidentally doubled as frost protection. Carlos Augusto, the farm’s owner and president of the Cooxupe cooperative, noted that roughly 4,000–5,000 meters of coffee trees surrounding the lake were protected from frost damage, with the lower-altitude fog in the region providing a similar buffering effect. This is a reminder that water infrastructure on a coffee farm rarely serves one purpose. The same lake that irrigates in dry months can be the difference between a normal harvest and a frost-damaged one.

Aracacu has taken a similar approach further, building a lake that currently irrigates 32 hectares, with natural springs on the property earmarked for future expansion. Rancho Sao Benedito, at up to 1,450 meters altitude, contains five protected natural springs on its land, one of which feeds a public drinking fountain in the neighbouring town practicing sustainability and encouraging community.

Water use also shapes processing decisions. Aracacu’s experimental fully washed lot — a rare processing method in Brazil — produced notably sweet, floral cup characteristics, but the farm is intentionally limiting it to micro-lot volumes specifically because of the large water demand involved. The scarcity of washed Brazil coffees are not necessarily a supply issue to be solved, but producing only in low volumes is a deliberate sustainability choice the farm has set for itself. While visiting this farm we also tried an experimental lot of the ‘Banga’ process with the Arara varietal. The name is derived from the location the coffee is processed – underneath the banana and mango trees. The coffee is rested underneath a plastic sheet, weighted down with stones and logs along the edge, preserving some air-flow and creating an almost anaerobic fermentation. In the cup, we experienced a well balanced coffee with fruit salad notes.

At Sitio Baixadao, Helisson was able to share just some of his knowledge, and identified 1,100–1,200 meters as the practical sweet spot for this region. It is high enough for slower cherry maturation and cup quality, but not so high that wind, humidity, and pest pressure begin working against productivity. Sun exposure matters as much as elevation; coffee planted on the sun-facing side of a slope matures faster and suffers less from rust and disease pressure than coffee on the shaded side, where higher humidity creates favourable conditions for pests and fungal disease. The trade-off is nuanced as shaded-side plants can retain more character but mature more slowly and yield less.

Several producers across the region agreed on the same conclusion: chasing maximum quality is not always the rational choice. Visiting the Sertaozinho farms, Paulo Ribeiro Rocha described deliberately targeting a consistent 80–85 score range rather than pushing higher, because the additional labour, risk, and management required to consistently exceed that threshold isn’t matched by proportional returns. Coffee grown at very high altitude might score better, but the agronomic demands change substantially, and for many operations, the increased sales cost doesn’t justify it.

On soil quality, Helisson advised it is less about what you add and more about protecting what is already there as well as encouraging biodiversity to do the work. This aligns with the MOBI biologist partnership at Aracacu, where soil scientists monitor conditions continuously to determine whether intervention (fertiliser, manure, irrigation) is actually needed, rather than acting on a fixed schedule. This not only leads to naturally healthy soil, but also avoids spending on interventions the soil doesn’t need.

There seems to be a generational transition visible on multiple farms we visited, where family members acknowledged that most of the later generations are unlikely to take over the farm, citing both career divergence and the increasing difficulty of managing crops under unpredictable weather. This highlights the importance for us to continue to support our producers and foster long term, mutually beneficial relationships. The agricultural knowledge embedded in a farm — soil monitoring routines, cover-crop selection, water management — has historically been held informally, rather than documented in a transferable system. Paulo Rocher is now teaching his children and grandchildren how to care for the soil, and passing on his extensive knowledge as his role transforms from labourer to teacher. One of the most important things for Paulo was that the coffee he produces is good for the people drinking it, grown with care and minimal chemical input.

A conversation that surfaced at a number of farms touched on a common assumption among some producers that regenerative or biological practices work against farm profitability. The producers we visited countered this with explanations on how biological products require more labour to administer than blanket chemical treatments, which means this approach to farming creates more local jobs, not fewer. Combined with healthier soil driving higher plant productivity, the result is more coffee to sell and more staff required to manage it they claimed; a cycle that would support the surrounding rural economy rather than depleting it.

Coffee production is reliant on a huge amount of manual labour, which is becoming increasingly difficult to source due to its demanding nature and less attractive pay than some more corporate roles. This is leading farms to look at innovative solutions. Fazenda Aracacu was trialling a new rover robot for raking the drying coffee on their patio. This rover can reduce the need for workers from 20 people to 5, alleviating pressure when the uptake of labour is low. To encourage workers, many farms will host a barbeque at the end of the harvest season and share a portion of the profit made from the bags that have already been sold. The aim is to maintain long-term relationships with the workers and to support the local economy, highlighted by how many pickers had been working on these farms for generations.

A more regenerative agronomy and Good Agricultural Practices in general are increasingly paired alongside rigorous data collection. At Fazenda Santa Clara, every batch is fully traceable, with detailed records of processing duration, weather, and temperature submitted to COCARIVE so that successful practices can be identified and replicated, and problems diagnosed at the source. The farm has also returned to germinating its own seedlings in an on-site nursery for the first time in six years, aiming to control quality from the earliest point in the plant’s life cycle rather than relying on external nursery stock.

Sitio Colinas demonstrates the full circle nature of a farm. Totalling 16 hectares, with 13 dedicated to coffee, the rest is put to good use with cattle, chickens, ducks as well as an impressive venue that is hired out for private events almost every weekend. The farm has a dry mill on site, common in Brazil, and once the parchment is removed from the coffee, it is repurposed as bedding for the cows. The cows return this exchange with fertiliser from their manure creating a closed-loop relationship. Luiz showcases diverse thinking by creating a desirable events venue within the farm, not only bringing in additional income but educating visitors to the industry.

Boa Vista Do Anil provided a clear example of varied crop production. Within the farm there is a multitude of banana trees providing financial income outside of coffee harvesting season. Bananas bring consistency as they are harvested every week, and also help regulate the humidity and soil quality due to decomposing matter.

The uncertain weather was a pressing topic with producers across the region describing increasingly unstable weather of excess rain during harvest, insufficient rain during flowering and the anticipated effects of a super El Niño were a recurring topic. We saw first hand at Sitio Baixadao harvesting halted midway when the rain hit and roads became almost impassable with slick mud, a small but telling demonstration of how our changing climate is interrupting operations in real time.

Three practical takeaways emerge from this season’s visits. First, agronomy is highly localized — the right cover crop, shade ratio, or water strategy in one microclimate will not necessarily transfer to another, so due diligence should focus on the specificity of a farm’s reasoning rather than a generic sustainability narrative. This is the whole reasoning behind the Geracoes certification. Second, quality ceilings are often deliberate economic decisions, not capability limits. Third, the labour-intensity of regenerative practices have a genuine economic argument in their favour, not just an environmental one, and is a conversation worth continuing amongst producers and buyers.