The Use of Biomass for Energy Production and Organic Fertilizer for Mitigating Climate Change and Improving the Competitiveness of the Agricultural Enterprise: The Case of UPAP in Puriscal, Costa Rica

Abstract

The farmer’s association UPAP, in the Canton of Puriscal, Costa Rica, has been making efforts to transform its firm in order to adapt new technologies to reduce the production costs. This is done by reusing biomass (manure from cattle mainly) to generate energy and produce organic fertilizers which are distributed among farmers affiliated to the Association. The UPAP’s main economic activity is livestock auction, which generates a large amount of biomass (cattle excreta). The guiding question to support the research was: how to manage the biomass produced in the cattle auction to mitigate the negative externalities and to get economic benefits? The research was developed taking into consideration the importance of the proposal for the climate change adaptation and allow the agribusiness to solve its negative impact on the environment while maintaining competitiveness. With the support of experts from the MAG an assessment of the activity to specify the type of biodigester that was to be built was prepared. This diagnosis included: number of animals, time spent in each auction, amount of water and manure and the vermicompost process. The preliminary results based on the gross profit indicator show a clear economic disadvantage in relation to investment in mitigating the negative externalities of agribusiness and show a shortfall of US$675.92 (₡ 361,621.00) per month. The inefficiency in the use of biogas as well as the time spent to produce vermicompost seem to be the most important factors that must be analyzed to make the project more efficient.