Rice & Sugar-cane Fields

We spent the morning in the hot, hot, windy rice and sugarcane fields in a flat valley next to Palo Verde National Park. The area was given to small farmers in 10 ha plots around 20 or so years ago by the Costa Rican government as a rural development project. To irrigate the land, water left-over from the Arenal dam project has been diverted to the valley through a series of canals, some spanning more than 30 kilometers. So this is a hugely impressive public works/agricultural reform project--but (of course) it also creates some problems for the park.

Heavy levels of pesticide and fertilizer use pollute water that eventually flows into surrounding marshes and the Tempisque River, the largest watershed in northern Costa Rica. The chemicals may not be directly harmful, but they can build up in the food chain from insects or rodents to birds or fish and eventually back to people. And, of course, there are other problems with nutrient build-up clogging up aquatic ecosystems or the agricultural monocultures supporting artificially high pest populations.

Migrant issues also come into play with the sugarcane plantations. Unlike rice, sugarcane only demands a large work-force at establishment and harvesting. And this work is incredibly tough: hot sun, long hours, and heavy labor. This means that the companies that own the land want to import workers and then send them away and that the workers have to be willing to tolerate intense conditions. So Nicaraguans usually come over to take these jobs. On one hand, they are subject to unfair working conditions (little access to drinking water, poor living facilities, limited access to health care). On the other, some Costa Ricans implicate these immigrants with increased crime rates and over-extended public health. Sound familiar?

So it was a very interesting, but also depressing and exhausting field trip. For the rest of the day, we were encouraged to contemplate our independent project topics. I'm still contemplating. On our day off tomorrow, Ben and I have planned to do some hikes around the park to check out different sites and study organisms and brainstorm ideas. Hopefully our adventures will inspire a solid research topic.