Search

Farms in the global South show heavy use of pesticides such as herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. Some of these substances are banned in Switzerland and the European Union but are often produced and exported from there. Our messages draw on research findings from Kenya. They make the link to international conventions, highlight alternatives to pesticide-intensive agricultural practices, and call for phasing out “highly hazardous” substances in line with human rights and the precautionary principle.

Agroforestry often relies on local knowledge, which is gaining recognition in development projects. However, how local knowledge can articulate with external and scientific knowledge is little known. Our study explored the use and integration of local and external knowledge in agroforestry projects in Bolivia. In 42 field visits and 62 interviews with agroforestry farmers, civil society representatives, and policymakers, we found a diverse knowledge base. We examined how local and external knowledge contribute to livelihood assets and tree and crop diversity. Projects based predominantly on external knowledge tended to promote a single combination of tree and crop species and targeted mainly financial capital, whereas projects with a local or mixed knowledge base tended to focus on food security and increased natural capital (e.g., soil restoration) and used a higher diversity of trees and crops than those with an external knowledge base. The integration of different forms of knowledge can enable farmers to better cope with new challenges emerging as a result of climate change, fluctuating market prices for cash crops, and surrounding destructive land use strategies such as uncontrolled fires and aerial fumigation with herbicides. However, many projects still tended to prioritize external knowledge and undervalue local knowledge—a tendency that has long been institutionalized in the formal educational system and in extension services. More dialogue is needed between different forms of knowledge, which can be promoted by strengthening local organizations and their networks, reforming agricultural educational institutions, and working in close interaction with policymakers.

Migration from the Bolivian Altiplano to the Amazonian lowlands poses a number of challenges related to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Alto Beni, located in the Bolivian Yungas at the interface between two altitudinal zones, is a critical area in this respect. Unsustainable land use practices are leading to soil erosion, shallow landslides, as well as forest and biodiversity loss. Settlers from the Altiplano see themselves confronted with an ecosystem that does not support the agricultural systems they were once used to. Soil degradation and government incentives have promoted migration further into the rainforest, creating pressure on local indigenous groups and biodiversity. The best-suited land use system for the fragile soils and ecosystems in Alto Beni is diversified agroforestry, which is often combined with a cash crop such as cocoa or coffee. Many farmers practising such a system have organic certification and achieve a premium price for their cash crops. However, cocoa farmers in Alto Beni face many challenges. Prolonged droughts, heavy rains, floods, increased heat, and plant diseases are mentioned most by cocoa farmers. In this study we compile results from a research project on the resilience of organic and nonorganic cocoa farms to external risk factors and discuss them in the context of climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and migration. Cocoa farmers who belong to a cooperative and had organic certification achieved higher resilience indicators than others, because they tended to cultivate cocoa in diversified agroforestry systems. Cooperatives fostered agroforestry through capacity-building, knowledge exchange, extension services, and awareness-raising. They also provided social insurances and enhanced mutual support among their members. Challenges within established cooperatives such as lack of technical support to farmers and knowledge exchange within and between organizations can hamper resilience building. Finally, the inclusion of new farmers into cocoa cooperatives seems critical to reducing outmigration and the reproduction of non-sustainable practices in other fragile areas. Multiple challenges remain to be addressed, however, including the enhancement of solidarity economy networks and their extension sectors other than export crops.

The growing demand for cocoa beans and products worldwide has been met by expanding the area under cocoa production while productivity per hectare has stagnated at a low level of around 450 kg/ha per year in the last decade. Throughout the tropics cocoa has increasingly been cultivated in full-sun monocultures in order to maximize short-term productivity and profitability, which has been associated with soil erosion and degradation, biodiversity loss, as well as increased susceptibility to climate change impacts and pests and diseases. Dynamic agroforestry systems are an alternative production method which has long been practiced in Latin American countries such as Bolivia. Through mimicking natural forests, these systems offer multiple benefits such as soil fertility enhancement, reduction in pest and disease pressure, erosion control, and revenue diversification. In Côte d’Ivoire, where most cocoa is still produced in monocultures, dynamic agroforestry systems were recently introduced on a small scale. Here we use different research projects conducted in Bolivia and Côte d’Ivoire as case studies to review productivity, soil fertility as well as pests and diseases in dynamic agroforestry systems and monocultures, and outline factors influencing the adoption of dynamic agroforestry systems from the farmers’ perspective. We found productivity under agroforestry systems to be either similar or higher compared to monocultures. We recorded 161 % higher total system yields in an on-station field trial and an on-farm study in Bolivia, and in an on-farm study in Côte d’Ivoire. Cocoa yields were 12–46 % higher in agroforestry systems compared to monocultures. In addition, cocoa in dynamic agroforestry systems exhibited significantly less incidences of witches’ broom, Moniliophthora perniciosa, compared to monocultures in Bolivia. Farmers in Bolivia and Côte d’Ivoire observed more soil-related problems and incidences of pests and diseases in monocultures than in agroforestry systems, and they showed high interest to learn dynamic agroforestry management practices. However, adoption was strongly limited to project areas where dynamic agroforestry plots had been installed with farmers’ participation. This highlights the importance of local organizations such as Ecotop, Ecosaf, El Ceibo and Biopartenaire Ltd., who implement such interventions on the ground. However, we found that there is space for improvement in the way organizations interact with farmers, especially in Côte d’Ivoire. Interactive knowledge sharing methods such as farmer field schools may help to stimulate farmers’ protagonism and give scientists and external consultants the role of facilitators who integrate different forms of knowledge and make them visible to different stakeholders. Such a social learning process requires transdisciplinary research for the development of decision support tools which facilitate the determination of both optimal planting densities and shade levels, as well as adequate combinations of trees and accompanying species in order to achieve effective regulation of pests and diseases while ensuring favourable growing conditions.

This study compares aboveground and belowground carbon stocks and tree diversity in different cocoa cultivation systems in Bolivia: monoculture, simple agroforestry, and successional agroforestry, as well as fallow as a control. Since diversified, agroforestry-based cultivation systems are often considered important for sustainable development, we also evaluated the links between carbon stocks and tree diversity, as well as the role of organic certification in transitioning from monoculture to agroforestry. Biomass, tree diversity, and soil physiochemical parameters were sampled in 15 plots measuring 48 × 48 m. Semi-structured interviews with 52 cocoa farmers were used to evaluate the role of organic certification and farmers’ organizations (e.g., cocoa cooperatives) in promoting tree diversity. Total carbon stocks in simple agroforestry systems (128.4 ± 20 Mg ha−1) were similar to those on fallow plots (125.2 ± 10 Mg ha−1). Successional agroforestry systems had the highest carbon stocks (143.7 ± 5.3 Mg ha−1). Monocultures stored significantly less carbon than all other systems (86.3 ± 4.0 Mg ha−1, posterior probability P(Diff > 0) of 0.000–0.006). Among shade tree species, Schizolobium amazonicum, Centrolobium ochroxylum, and Anadenanthera sp. accumulated the most biomass. High-value timber species (S. amazonicum, C. ochroxylum, Amburana cearensis, and Swietenia macrophylla) accounted for 22.0 % of shade tree biomass. The Shannon index and tree species richness were highest in successional agroforestry systems. Cocoa plots on certified organic farms displayed significantly higher tree species richness than plots on non-certified farms. Thus, expanding the coverage of organic farmers’ organizations may be an effective strategy for fostering transitions from monoculture to agroforestry systems.

Cocoa-based small-scale agriculture is the most important source of income for most farming families in the region of Alto Beni in the sub-humid foothills of the Andes. Cocoa is grown in cultivation systems of varying ecological complexity. The plantations are highly susceptible to climate change impacts. Local cocoa producers mention heat waves, droughts, floods and plant diseases as the main impacts affecting plants and working conditions, and they associate these impacts with global climate change. From a sustainable regional development point of view, cocoa farms need to become more resilient in order to cope with the climate change related effects that are putting cocoa-based livelihoods at risk. This study assesses agroecosystem resilience under three different cocoa cultivation systems (successional agroforestry, simple agroforestry and common practice monocultures). In a first step, farmers’ perceptions of climate change impacts were assessed and eight indicators of agroecological resilience were derived in a transdisciplinary process (focus groups and workshop) based on farmers’ and scientists’ knowledge. These indicators (soil organic matter, depth of Ah horizon, soil bulk density, tree species diversity, crop varieties diversity, ant species diversity, cocoa yields and infestation of cocoa trees with Moniliophthora perniciosa) were then surveyed on 15 cocoa farms and compared for the three different cultivation systems. Parts of the socio-economic aspects of resilience were covered by evaluating the role of cocoa cooperatives and organic certification in transitioning to more resilient cocoa farms (interviews with 15 cocoa farmers combined with five expert interviews). Agroecosystem resilience was higher under the two agroforestry systems than under common practice monoculture, especially under successional agroforestry. Both agroforestry systems achieved higher cocoa yields than common practice monoculture due to agroforestry farmers’ enhanced knowledge regarding cocoa cultivation. Knowledge sharing was promoted by local organizations facilitating organic certification. These organizations were thus found to enhance the social process of farmers’ integration into cooperatives and their reorientation toward organic principles and diversified agroforestry.