Patrick Jagoret

Coffee and cocoa production in agroforestry - a climate-smart agriculture model

Agroforestry should be a major climate-smart agriculture option as it combines sustainable production with adaptation and mitigation of climate change. In recent decades, cocoa and coffee cultivation have been responsible for the loss of more than 30 million ha of primary and secondary forests, and thus for increased greenhouse gas emissions. However, they also have a substantial mitigation potential via the 20 million ha currently in production, only part of which is managed under agroforestry. These agroforestry plantations are more stable over time and resilient against climate change and price volatility of agricultural products, by combining ecological services with diversified production. This chapter illustrates these features through research results obtained on three continents and proposes recommendations on the management of these systems and on public policies—from the farm to the territory.

Cacao Nutrition and Fertilization

Cocoa is globally the third agricultural commodity traded in terms of value. The cocoa world production is relatively stable since 2010, amounting to around 4.5 million tonnes. Eight countries account for 90 % of the cocoa production, of which four West African countries. Under traditional cultivation practices, cocoa yields are poor with an average of ten fruits per cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), even though it has a potential to yield more than 100 fruits. As for most tree crops, the yields are depending on many factors, of which the more important are planting material, climate, cultural practices, and soil. Cacao is cultivated on many types of soil, and in various conditions, from agroforestry systems to full sun. Soil degradation and low soil fertility are among the main causes of low cocoa productivity. However, despite this inherent low fertility, most of the cocoa farmers do not use fertilizer because they are not well informed of the agricultural and fertilizers issues.

Agroforestry-based diversification for planting cocoa in the savannah of Central Cameroon

Cocoa is a crop often cultivated after clearing forests. This ensures, at least in the initial years, favourable conditions for good agriculture production: a relatively high level of soil organic matter, nutrient availability, limited amount of weeds and reduced pest pressure (Chap. 1). How can we explain the emergence of a new cocoa frontier on degraded soils of the savannah areas in Central Cameroon? Agroforestry-based diversification plays a central ecological and economic role in the establishment of these cocoa farms in the savannah. At the agronomic level, the reconstitution of a multi-species cocoa cultivation system by farmers in the forest-savannah interface area of central Cameroon helps overcome the main constraints presented by such areas for cocoa cultivation (uneven rainfall distribution, poor soil quality and presence of Imperata cylindrica). At the economic level, the benefits of a cocoa agroforestry system in the savannah are also confirmed.

Sustainable cocoa production. Learning from agroforestry

In order to meet growing demand for chocolate products, numerous initiatives have been launched over the last 10 years with a view to increasing cocoa production. These initiatives continue to promote the input-intensive model advocated since the 1960s, even though this model has reached its agronomic, socio-economic, and environmental limits. Hence the proposal to learn from agroforestry in order to develop the current model: introducing fruit and forest tree species into cocoa plantations contributes to the agro-ecological intensification of cocoa production, while improving flexibility and resilience, which are essential to smallholder farmers, who grow 95% of the worlds cocoa.

Production durable de cacao : s'inspirer de l'agroforesterie

Pour satisfaire la consommation croissante de produits chocolates, de nombreuses initiatives ont ete lancees depuis une decennie afin d’augmenter la production de cacao. Ces initiatives continuent de promouvoir le modele intensif en intrants preconise depuis les annees 1960, alors que ce modele a atteint ses limites agronomiques, socio-economiques et environnementales. D’ou la proposition de s’inspirer de l’agroforesterie pour faire evoluer le modele actuel : introduire des arbres fruitiers et forestiers dans les cacaoyeres contribue a l’intensification agroecologique de la cacaoculture, tout en apportant souplesse et resilience, necessaires aux petits agriculteurs, qui produisent 95 % du cacao mondial.