Plant diversity and density in cocoa-based agroforestry systems: how farmers' income is affected in the Dominican Republic
2020
Notaro, Martin | Gary, Christian | Deheuvels, Olivier | Fonctionnement et conduite des systèmes de culture tropicaux et méditerranéens (UMR SYSTEM) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier (CIHEAM-IAMM) ; Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM)-Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut Agro - Montpellier SupAgro ; Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro) | World Agroforestry Centre | Département Performances des systèmes de production et de transformation tropicaux (Cirad-PERSYST) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad) | We thank the Cacao Forest project for funding this study, our local partners (Rizek Cacao S.A., Fundopo and Conacado) for their logistical support and for allowing access to their cocoa farms. We thank The Forest Trust for their support.
International audience
Afficher plus [+] Moins [-]anglais. Cocoa-based agroforestry systems (AFS) provide a variety of products, either sold or self-consumed. The choice of crop species and planting density in cocoa AFS has an impact on the quantities and the economic value of the agricultural products sold and consumed by producers. We characterized 140 cocoa AFS in three main production areas in the Dominican Republic, together with farmer's management practices, to construct a typology of cocoa AFS based on their structure, and evaluate their performances. The sum of the sales of cocoa, other products, and self-consumption did not differ significantly among AFS types. However, a high degree of diversification combined with a high density of associated fruit species reduced cocoa sales, but increased fruit sales and self-consumption. In contrast, a low diversity of associated plants including nitrogen-fixing trees increased cocoa sales but reduced fruit sales and self-consumption. The highest economic performance was obtained with intermediate diversity (three to seven species) and density (100-400 associated plants ha(-1)). Our results provide food for thought for optimizing crop diversity and density to adjust the economic balance between sales and self-consumption of the products harvested in cocoa AFS.
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