The Team

Originally from Leon on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, Orlando has an Agronomy degree from the Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School, a private and reknowned international University in Honduras.

Upon graduating Orlando returned to Nicaragua and spent 15 yrs working within the Ministry of Agriculture focusing on plant production and horticulture. The Ministry awarded him with two scholarships for his work, each lasting a period of two years, and providing exposure to international and cutting edge horticultural techniques. The first sent him to CATIE (the Training and Research Centre for Tropical Agronomy) in Costa Rica where he studied coffee and cacao production. The second scholarship sent Orlando to the University of Puerto Rico, where he studied phytotechnology ,specializing in commercial fruit production.

Following his time at the Ministry, Orlando moved to the National Bank of Nicaragua where he spent seven years working on the design and implementation of large scale irrigation projects. During this time he spent extended periods of time in Israel studying innovative new irrigation systems.

Orlando left the bank and began to develop his own 80ha farm for production of coffee, cacao and fruit. However, shortly afterwards the Sandanista revolution occurred, and he was forcibly removed from the land and his farm confiscated. During the years of the revolution Orlando left Nicaragua and spent his time split between the United States and Guatemala, working for a series of private companies on plant production and nursery development.

In 1994 Orlando returned to Nicaragua and has since worked with EcoPlanet Bamboo President, John Vogel, developing a series of nurseries for projects across Nicaragua.