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Enabling Colombian smallholder farmers to engage in agroforestry
Growing balsa trees to restore land and increase farmers income
WHAT WE DO
Cultiba enables smallholder farmers to use unproductive land to plant balsa trees alongside food crops that they already grow. We achieve this by delivering a proven agroforestry partnership model where smallholder farmers provide land, labour, and security, and we deliver inputs, training, access to government forestry incentives, and access to fair market prices.
quality inputs and training
We provide farmers with inputs, high quality training and support throughout the lifecycle of the plantation to guarantee the success of its establishment and development.
We facilitate access to governmental forestry incentives to generate an annual income for the farmer while the plantation reaches the harvesting maturity.
Harvesting, processing and selling
We take care of the harvesting, processing, and selling of the wood, securing an off-take agreement before planting to guarantee fair prices from the onset.
government forestry incentives
WHY BALSA TREES
Balsa is native to Colombia and is used in agroforestry to improve soil quality, help to retain water, and reduce erosion.
It can be commercially harvested after 4 to 6 years, and it is used in the production of wind turbines.
Global balsa wood exports reached $800m in 2020.
The Colombian government provides a forestry incentive to plant balsa trees, subsidizing 40% of the set-up costs and 50% of maintenance costs over 5 years.
OUR IMPACT
Approximately 48% of Colombian smallholder farmers own the land where they live, however the average Colombian smallholder farmer, earns $5 per day to support a family of five people. Cultiba partners with smallholder farmers living below the poverty line to double their income for every hectare planted.
By increasing income opportunities in rural areas, our proposed solution also contributes to reducing rural migration to urban centres and increasing peace stability in conflict affected areas. In addition, our plantations will prevent illegal and unplanned deforestation, contribute towards carbon sequestration, improve farmer’s soil quality, and increase water absorption.