Renacer Natural
Renacer Natural
In English, Renacer means ‘Reborn’. The coffee agronomy field school was given this name to reflect the feeling that a renaissance was needed in the EL Salvadorean coffee sector.
Renacer has been operating since 2020 from Finca Noruega in the area of Ahuachapan and was born from a collaboration between Raices (Cosecha Azul – Catholic Relief Services), the Los Naranjos Group, and one of their founders, Sigfredo Corado. The technical field school sits under the umbrella of a program run by Catholic Relief Services named Cosecha Azul (Blue Harvest) which works in Central America focusing on the protection and restoration of water sources in coffee communities. Sigfredo Corado is a retired agronomy professor who worked at El Salvador’s National School of Agriculture (ENA) and was also head of social projects in vulnerable communities and groups. In his retirement, he continued to support producers with his knowledge and expertise with the support of the Los Naranjos Group. Sigfredo’s approach and values for teaching are based on those of regenerative agriculture and land restoration which promote a natural alliance with the mission of the Blue Harvest program.
The Renacer Field School established a curriculum to help educate and support producers with a program of farm management designed by Sigfredo. A class is held twice a month for the students and throughout the year there are 3 modules that the students attend. The program focuses on the 4 Rs that were developed to optimize soil health. Right Source. Right Dose. Right Place. Right Time. All the training takes place at the farm, Finca Noruega, where the students work the test plots. Here they can implement the knowledge gained in class before applying it to their own farms. Finca Noruega is 43 manzanas planted with a range of varieties from Bourbon to Gesha as well as having a section of the farm where students can learn about cover crops and what to plant in synergy with coffee that will benefit the soil health.
In the first year there were 10 students who were part of the program. This grew to 60 producers (10 female) the field school in 2022. To continue the support alongside from the field school Renacer has 6 field officers who support their students and communities. For every 10 producers they have
advisors who work closely with a field officer to help promote the practices and also provide information and training during the year about what techniques and processes they should be applying to their farms in the annual coffee-producing cycle. This currently supports 350 producers.
In 2023, RENACER was awarded a Sustainability Award from the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) recognizing the school for their outstanding work on training farmers on affordable and sustainable agricultural techniques.
