Welcome to our beautiful cocoa farm, where the abundance of nature and agricultural expertise blend together to create a truly remarkable and unique combination. Our farm is nestled in the Dominican Republic, between Monte Plata (Bayaguana) and Santo Domingo (San Antonio de Guera). It is a tranquil location, far away from roads and urban areas, surrounded by sugar cane fields and industrial forests. In the midst of it all, the Yacao River flows, showcasing a remarkable biotope of endemic flora and fauna.
At our farm, we take great pride in our mission to regenerate once-abandoned pastures with unwavering passion and meticulous care. Since 2018, our agronomists and tree caretakers have been working tirelessly to establish a fully mechanized cocoa plantation of the highest quality. In late 2022, a new group of dedicated leaders and managers took over the farm, bringing with them a wealth of collective expertise and renewed investor trust and financial support. With a shared vision, they are committed to steering the project towards success.
In 2023, the land is undergoing a remarkable transformation as regenerative farming practices are implemented, breathing new life into the farm and revitalizing its future. We eagerly anticipate the day when the air will be filled with the sweet fragrance of blooming cocoa, acacia, and glyricidia flowers.
Our goals for 2023 include planting 340,000 cocoa trees, over 200,000 Glyricidia sepium trees for shade, and thousands of windbreaker trees of the species Acacia mangium. We are also exploring solutions to establish a legume cover crop to naturally suppress weeds that hinder cocoa tree development.
However, our farm is more than just a source of cocoa; it is a place of connection and community. We provide direct employment to over 100 individuals who come to our fields daily to care for our trees and infrastructure. As part of our personal development program, we offer training in small groups to nurture talent and develop new leaders in specific tasks such as grafting, pruning, harvesting, and more.
Bayacao management is now committed to a significant shift, prioritizing the well-being of its employees by providing basic needs in the workplace. We are actively engaged in providing personal protective equipment, showers, toilets, a subsidized canteen, and transportation to and from the workplace. Our civil engineer has already initiated this transformation by installing a well for water and bringing electricity from the national grid to the compound.
With these elements in place in July 2023, we are relocating our operational office on-site, developing a proper workshop, and renovating the central store. This will ensure good working conditions for our employees in the long term and offer them the opportunity to build rewarding careers with us.
We firmly believe in sustainable farming practices, respecting the land and preserving its natural resources for future generations. Our commitment to environmental stewardship permeates every aspect of our operations. By prioritizing the well-being of our ecosystem and our people, we strive to create a legacy of responsible farming.
Our organization, deeply committed to nature’s harmony, embarked on a special mission. We crafted nests for the Ashy-faced Owl, perching them high in royal palm trees.
As time passes we hope the owls will find solace in their new homes. They will become the guardians of our cocoa fields, naturally deterring troublesome rodents while raising their family.
It’s just beginning. If these nests become the owls’ cherished homes, we plan to spread their magic across all our commercial plantations. Moreover, we’re excited to share this solution with our fellow growers who suffer large crop losses due to rodents.
The owl (Typo glaucops) has a reddish-brown plumage, long legs, and a silver-gray heart-shaped face. It is commonly found throughout the Dominican Republic, with a higher probability of density on hillsides and limestone outcrops, where it primarily inhabits natural caves to establish its nests. In smaller proportions, they can be found in cities like Santo Domingo and in tourist locations like Punta Cana. There are also other areas with a considerable density of palm trees, where they have been observed, such as in the province of Monte Plata.
