Cooxupé, in partnership with Professor Madelaine Venzon, the Federal University of Viçosa and EPAMIG, is implementing the Regenerative Coffee Growing project in the region of Sul de Minas, Matas de Minas and Cerrado Mineiro. Our focus is to promote regenerative farming practices based on scientific data that will support our cooperative families in the field.
With this project, we hope to achieve significant impacts:
- Demonstration Units: Serving as models for promoting technology, organizing events and measuring economic impact and increasing biodiversity.
- Trained Technicians: Cooxupé technicians trained to disseminate and apply pest management technologies in regenerative coffee growing.
- Ecological corridors: to attract natural enemies and increase carbon stocks
- Reduced use of pesticides: Less dependence on pesticides to control coffee pests.
- Cost reduction: Fewer costs associated with the acquisition of external inputs.
- Increased Biodiversity: General growth in biodiversity, with an emphasis on biological control, pollination, carbon capture, greater tolerance to water stress and mitigation of the effects of climate change.
- Reducing the Carbon Footprint: By implementing practices that increase carbon retention in the soil.
- Improved microclimate: A system with a mild microclimate, minimizing the impact of climate change on crops.
- Demonstration Units: Serving as models for promoting technology, organizing events and measuring economic impact and increasing biodiversity.
- Trained Technicians: Cooxupé technicians trained to disseminate and apply pest management technologies in regenerative coffee growing.
- Ecological corridors: to attract natural enemies and increase carbon stocks
- Reduced use of pesticides: Less dependence on pesticides to control coffee pests.
- Cost reduction: Fewer costs associated with the acquisition of external inputs.
- Increased Biodiversity: General growth in biodiversity, with an emphasis on biological control, pollination, carbon capture, greater tolerance to water stress and mitigation of the effects of climate change.
- Reducing the Carbon Footprint: By implementing practices that increase carbon retention in the soil.
- Improved microclimate: A system with a mild microclimate, minimizing the impact of climate change on crops.
Christina Singh is an environmental economist with a focus on sustainable coffee value chains and the goal of transforming global consumption and production patterns through innovative business models. In 2023, she co-founded the startup GrowGrounds ApS, which supports producers in converting monoculture coffee plantations to syntropic agroforestry systems, rewarding them with carbon income. He acts as COO, responsible for compliance (Gold Standard and GHG Protocol) and operations in Latin America. Brazil is his main country of operation, with projects in all the main coffee-growing regions of Minas Gerais. With previous experience at Löfbergs and the COWI consultancy, he has built up a solid track record in circular innovation, value chain traceability and carbon finance.
Rodrigo Castriota has a PhD in Economics and is the founder of Clima Café de Floresta, a pioneering company in Brazil dedicated to transforming coffee production through the integration of trees into the crop and payments for environmental services to coffee growers. His job is to support producers in migrating to regenerative systems by creating new sources of income with carbon credits, timber, climate insurance and subsidized green credit.
Researcher at the Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Corporation (EPAMIG) since 1992, in the area of biological pest control.
She has a degree in Agronomic Engineering from the Federal University of Pelotas (1988), a master's degree in Plant Health (Entomology) from the Federal University of Lavras (1991), a Ph.D. in Population Biology - University of Amsterdam (2000) and a post-doctorate at the University of California, Davis (2015/16). She has a research productivity grant from the National Council for Scientific Development and is currently a member of the CNPq Advisory Committee.
She was Coordinator of Epamig's State Agroecology Research Program and Coordinator of Technology Transfer at Epamig Southeast. She is deputy editor in the area of biological control of the journal Neotropical Entomology and the Revista Brasileira de Agroecologia, and associate editor of the journal Frontiers in Agronomy and Agriculture.
She is a teaching advisor on the postgraduate courses in Entomology, the Professional Master's Degree in Plant Health Defense and the Plant Protection course at the Federal University of Viçosa. She was a member and coordinator of FAPEMIG's Chamber of Natural Resources, Environmental Sciences and Technologies.
Member of the Cerrado das águas advisory board. She has published more than 124 articles in refereed scientific journals, as well as 15 books and 45 book chapters for national and international publishers. He has supervised more than 120 students, including scientific initiation, technical training, course completion work, specialization, post-graduate students (master's and doctoral students) and post-doctoral students.
In 2017 he received EPAMIG's Outstanding Scientific Merit award for his work on biological control. In 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 she received the award for outstanding research productivity from Epamig. She was the technical coordinator of the recently launched Agricultural Report on Bioinputs. International and national partnerships with public and private institutions. Elected one of the TOP 100 outstanding women in Agribusiness by FORBES in 2023.
