In Puerto Rico, Building Resilience Through Regenerative Agriculture
In Puerto Rico, coffee farmers are learning critical agricultural practices to improve their resilience to climate threats—with support from TechnoServe.
How Regenerative Coffee Farming Is Helping Puerto Rican Farmers Rebuild After Hurricanes
Maritza del Rosario López Cortés still remembers the 36 hours she spent unable to reach her farm after Hurricane Fiona tore through Puerto Rico in September 2022. Four years of painstaking work rebuilding after Hurricane Maria hung in the balance. When she and her husband, Daniel Cruz Torres, finally made it up the mountain to their 18 acres in Villalba’s Aceituna neighborhood, Maritza braced herself for devastation.
“I kept thinking that there was going to be nothing there,” she recalled. “But I was mistaken.”
A Coffee Farmer’s Story of Resilience and Renewal
The coffee trees were still standing, and the terraces had held. While their plantains suffered significant damage and many coffee trees were affected, the farm ultimately survived the storm. For Maritza, a fourth-generation coffee farmer and the first woman in her family to work the land, that survival meant everything.
Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico as a Category 1 storm on September 18, 2022, bringing winds up to 85 mph and dumping more than 30 inches of rain in some areas. For an island still recovering from Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic 2017 strike, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
TechnoServe has been working with coffee farmers in Puerto Rico since 2019, in partnership with Nespresso, Colibri Foundation, Hispanic Federation, and the Peter Alfond Foundation. After Hurricane Fiona, the TechnoServe team assessed 199 households to understand the damage and what farmers needed most.
Around 90% of the damaged farms surveyed lost up to 20% of their coffee trees, while another 9% lost between 20% and 40% of their trees. The destruction extended beyond coffee. Over 60% of farmers reported losing more than 80% of their plantain and banana plants. Half of all farmers saw their citrus crops wiped out.
Yet, despite the challenges, 98% of respondents said that support from the program had increased their capacity to recover from storms like Fiona. The farming practices they had learned between the storms had made the difference: erosion control, shade management, proper nutrition for coffee plants, and pruning and rejuvenation techniques.
Maritza joined the program in 2020 after Hurricane Maria had already set her family back years. “Like a lot of farmers, it wasn’t until four years after Hurricane Maria that we could finally start harvesting coffee again,” she explained. But she held onto hope. “In agriculture, although one loses the crops, the land remains to continue working on.”
Measuring the Impact: Soil Health, Biodiversity, and Farm Productivity
Working that land in Puerto Rico’s mountainous coffee region presents unique challenges. Steep slopes make erosion a constant threat during periods of heavy rainfall. TechnoServe trained Maritza and other farmers to plant on the contour, creating individual terraces that slow water flow and protect topsoil. The program also taught farmers about intercropping: planting shade trees or plantains alongside coffee to shield the more delicate coffee plants from sun, wind, and rain.
When Fiona struck, those lessons proved their worth. “The way we planted on the contour and intercropped with plantains protected the coffee trees and supported their survival,” Maritza said. “The individual terraces helped in controlling erosion through the heavy rains.”
A couple of weeks after the hurricane, TechnoServe farmer trainer Zuleyka Lugo visited with shade trees for permanent coverage and vetiver grasses for additional erosion control. The impacts won’t show overnight, but Maritza and Daniel are playing the long game, building resilience for their two daughters’ futures.
The storm still exacted a heavy price. The family lost their main cash crop when Fiona destroyed the plantain harvest, pushing their income into the red for the year. But Maritza reported that with the farm intact and support from TechnoServe staff, “we have the energy and resilience to keep going.”
That resilience paid off in an unexpected way. Despite their coffee trees being only two years old in 2022, the harvest was enough to supply the family’s household coffee consumption for the year. For a family working toward food independence, starting with coffee felt like a victory.
Looking Ahead: Regenerative Agriculture as a Path to Climate Resilience
Maritza’s ambitions reach beyond self-sufficiency. The former cosmetologist who found her calling in agriculture now dreams of reestablishing her family’s coffee mill and launching her own specialty coffee brand. She wants to use her farm as a training ground, inspiring young people to consider farming as a viable career.
“My greatest satisfaction is to see how my daughters’ eyes shine when we see a seed germinate,” Maritza said. “Just like the generations before me, I am working to educate my daughters through my example: to show them that they can develop and have a livelihood.”
Her vision extends to the land itself. “Farming has changed my life, and I have seen that the land heals us physically and mentally,” she explained. “To me, the word ‘coffee’ symbolizes an abundance of resources.”
Maritza hopes to grow old resting in a hammock under the shade of trees she planted herself, watching her daughters carry on the tradition. It’s a future that Hurricane Fiona nearly destroyed but couldn’t quite reach, thanks to sustainable practices, community support, and the resilience of farmers who refuse to give up on the land that has sustained their families for generations.
