Trade-offs between crop intensification and ecosystem services: the role of agroforestry in cocoa cultivation

Vaast, Philippe; Somarriba, Eduardo

doi:10.1007/s10457-014-9762-x

Cited by 144 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(76 reference statements)

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“…The share of the secondquality cacao was almost negligible in all production systems (on average 3% of the total yield). Productivity slowly reached the average yield in South America, ranging between 400 and 700 kg ha −1 (Vaast and Somarriba 2014), and was similar to other young cacao plantations (Ramirez et al 2001).…”

Section: Cacao and Plantain/banana Yieldssupporting

confidence: 70%

“…Currently, mainly smallholders cultivate cacao in the tropical lowlands of Latin America, West Africa, and South East Asia (Donald 2004;Franzen and Borgerhoff Mulder 2007). The global demand for cacao has been increasing (Vaast and Somarriba 2014), and this trend has led to a change in cacao production systems; traditional cultivation under shade has been replaced with full-sun monocultures with higher input levels (Franzen and Borgerhoff Mulder 2007). Monocultures generally have higher cacao yields compared to shaded systems (Gockowski et al 2013;Ramirez et al 2001;Ratnadass et al 2012) and may improve farmers' incomes in the short-term (Franzen and Borgerhoff Mulder 2007;Siebert 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cacao agroforestry systems have higher return on labor compared to full-sun monocultures

Armengot

Barbieri

Andrés

et al. 2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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The global demand for cacao has recently increased. To meet this demand, the cultivated area has been expanded in tropical forest areas and production has intensified by replacing traditional agroforestry systems with monocultures. This has led to a loss of biodiversity in cacaogrowing areas. More sustainable production systems such as agroforestry and organic managed systems are expected to yield less cacao, but by-crops and premium prices, respectively, might economically compensate for the lower yields. Here, we compared the productivity and the return on labor, that is the return per working day, of four different cacao production systems: agroforestry and monocultures under organic and conventional management. Cacao and by-crop yields, costs, revenues, and labor were registered during the first 5 years after establishment. Results show that cacao yields were, on average, 41% higher in monocultures, but the revenues derived from agroforestry by-crops economically overcompensated for this difference. Indeed, the return on labor across the years was roughly twice as high in the agroforestry systems compared to the monocultures. We found similar cacao yields and return on labor in conventional and organically managed agroforestry systems.However, in the monocultures, cacao yields were 48% lower under organic compared with conventional farming, but the return on labor was similar, mainly due to the higher costs associated to the conventional management. Overall, our findings show that cacao agroforestry systems have higher return on labor.

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Section: Cacao and Plantain/banana Yieldssupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cacao agroforestry systems have higher return on labor compared to full-sun monocultures

Armengot

Barbieri

Andrés

et al. 2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Recent international forums have emphasized the need to intensify cocoa cultivation (Vaast and Somarriba 2014). However, it is unlikely that cocoa farmers are able to change their production practices on their own.…”

Section: On the Problems Of Cocoa Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They are often weakly organized and almost all of them are low income and small-scale farmers with less than 2 ha of land (Fahmid 2013;Saleh 2012). In general, they lack investment capital for technical innovation, they are exposed to price volatility, and do not have much insight into price setting mechanisms (Yanuardy 2014;Moriarty et al 2014;Vaast and Somarriba 2014). In addition, they have limited knowledge on quality assurance systems and sustainability standards as demanded by the global market (Abdulsamad et al 2015;Saleh 2012), and the information they do have mostly originates from successful farmers in their neighborhood (Antara and Efffendy 2009).…”

Section: On the Problems Of Cocoa Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the ambitions is to positively influence the livelihood of smallholder farmers as the main producers of these commodities. Through various forms of voluntary private governance, occasionally with involvement of Northern governments, these partnerships have become important initiators of sustainable change in the production of coffee (Auld 2010;Kolk 2012;Manning et al 2012), palm oil (Schouten and Glasbergen 2011;Brandi et al 2013;Oosterveer 2014;Hospes 2014;Wijaya and Glasbergen 2016), tea (Glasbergen 2013;IDH 2013), cocoa (Bitzer et al 2012;KPMG 2013;Vaast and Somarriba 2014), aquaculture (Hatanaka 2010;Douma and van Wijk 2012; Van der Geest and Unno 2012; Bush et al 2013) and cotton (i.e., Bitzer and Glasbergen 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Governance challenges of cocoa partnership projects in Indonesia: seeking synergy in multi-stakeholder arrangements for sustainable agriculture

Wijaya

Glasbergen

Leroy

et al. 2016

Environ Dev Sustain

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This paper investigates multi-stakeholder arrangements initiated by businesses and NGOs from the North that aim to enhance a more sustainable agricultural production at specific localities in Southern countries. We aim to better understand the search for concerted action in multi-actor arrangements. Therefore, this paper presents a diagnostic framework with three strategic challenges the partnership projects are facing: linking global economic objectives to local needs, values and interests; bridging public and private interests and responsibilities; and seeking trade-offs between social, environmental and economic values. Starting from the partnerships' Theory of Change, this diagnostic framework is applied to comparative case studies of partnership projects in the cocoa sector in Indonesia, which are part of a Northern-based public-private partnership to improve farmers' prospective. It is concluded that the economic reality faced by the farmers differs from that of the Northern actors; collaboration with governments is difficult because of different organizational cultures; and the partnership projects underestimate the strength of vested social relations the smallholders are part of. Overall, the initiators of the partnerships seem to work with a too restricted economic interpretation of the local reality.

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Improving smallholder livelihoods and ecosystems through direct trade relations: High‐quality cocoa producers in Ecuador

et al. 2019

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Global trade in niche commodities has increased the influence of consumers' choices on land use change and livelihoods in developing rural areas. New niche commodity markets for fine cocoa—produced by old tree varieties frequently grown in shaded agroforestry systems—create more direct linkages between producers and buyers. We explored the socioeconomic and environmental outcomes for cocoa smallholders that participated in direct trade relations compared with smallholders that sold through mainstream markets. Household interviews were conducted with cocoa smallholders in northern Ecuador. Biodiversity conditions at farm level were monitored for 75% of surveyed households. Using a counterfactual based on genetic matching, we found that smallholders engaged in direct trade (a) captured superior prices for cocoa sales; (b) had greater access to agricultural training, technical assistance, and improved social networks; and (b) applied more nature‐friendly management practices, compared with smallholders selling through mainstream markets. However, a strong overlap between direct trading practices and organic certification made attribution of environmental benefits difficult. This overlap likely explained why farmers engaged in direct trade used more organic fertilizers and less herbicide. Shade level and plant species richness and abundance in plantations were unrelated to market participation. Additional qualitative analyses suggest that certification facilitates engagement in direct trade and that some direct buyers request certification. This study provides insights on the potential of developing value chain innovations for high‐quality commodity trade. The success of value chain innovations hinges on the competitiveness of farmers' cooperatives and involvement of governments, nongovernmental organizations, and private actors.

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Trade-offs between crop intensification and ecosystem services: the role of agroforestry in cocoa cultivation

Cited by 144 publications

References 55 publications

Cacao agroforestry systems have higher return on labor compared to full-sun monocultures

Cacao agroforestry systems have higher return on labor compared to full-sun monocultures

Governance challenges of cocoa partnership projects in Indonesia: seeking synergy in multi-stakeholder arrangements for sustainable agriculture

Improving smallholder livelihoods and ecosystems through direct trade relations: High‐quality cocoa producers in Ecuador

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