IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/masfgc/v21y2016i1p67-80.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate friendliness of cocoa agroforests is compatible with productivity increase

Author

Listed:
  • Götz Schroth
  • Arzhvaël Jeusset
  • Andrea Gomes
  • Ciro Florence
  • Núbia Coelho
  • Deborah Faria
  • Peter Läderach

Abstract

There is increasing demand for agricultural commodities that are produced in a climate-friendly manner. At the same time, in many or most tropical countries there is need for intensification of agricultural production to increase yields and incomes, and this usually requires higher external inputs that may cause additional greenhouse gas emissions. Here we investigate if production methods that have a beneficial effect on the climate (are climate-friendly) are compatible with increased inputs and yields for traditional, shaded cocoa (Theobroma cacao) production systems (locally known as cabrucas) in southern Bahia, Brazil. We use two easily measurable and manageable dimensions of climate friendliness, namely the carbon (C) stocks in the large trees and the C footprint as related to on-farm agrochemical and fuel use. Through interviews and field inventories in 26 cabruca farms representing a range of production practices and intensities, we identify the combinations of management practices, yields, C stocks and C footprints typically found in the region. We find that yield levels up to the highest encountered yield of 585 kg ha −1 , or twice the current regional average of 285 kg ha −1 , are compatible with an aboveground C stock in the large shade trees (>30 cm diameter at breast height) of up to 65 Mg ha −1 and up to 55 % shade. Higher C stocks and shade levels are generally associated with yields below the regional average. Input-related C emissions increased non-linearly with increasing yield, but even the highest encountered yields were compatible with low (>0.25 kg CO 2 e kg −1 of cocoa) to medium (>0.5 kg CO 2 e kg −1 of cocoa) input-related emission levels. Cocoa yields responded positively to increased fertilizer applications, provided that other factors, including shade levels, were not limiting. Consequently, the highest input-related emissions (>1 kg CO 2 e kg −1 of cocoa) were related to large fertilizer applications that did not proportionately increase yields. We conclude that doubling the cocoa output from southern Bahia, where cabrucas are the predominant form of growing cocoa, is compatible with climate-friendly production practices, measured by local standards. We suggest that the presented methodology can be used to identify opportunities for climate-friendly intensification of tree crops more generally, thereby increasing the contribution of commodity production to global climate change mitigation. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Götz Schroth & Arzhvaël Jeusset & Andrea Gomes & Ciro Florence & Núbia Coelho & Deborah Faria & Peter Läderach, 2016. "Climate friendliness of cocoa agroforests is compatible with productivity increase," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 67-80, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:21:y:2016:i:1:p:67-80
    DOI: 10.1007/s11027-014-9570-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11027-014-9570-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11027-014-9570-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Collins C. Okolie & Gideon Danso-Abbeam & Okechukwu Groupson-Paul & Abiodun A. Ogundeji, 2022. "Climate-Smart Agriculture Amidst Climate Change to Enhance Agricultural Production: A Bibliometric Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Patrice Dumas & Stefan Wirsenius & Tim Searchinger & Nadine Andrieu & Adrien Vogt-Schilb, 2022. "Options to achieve net - zero emissions from agriculture and land use changes in Latin America and the Caribbean," Post-Print halshs-03760573, HAL.
    3. Saj, Stéphane & Jagoret, Patrick & Etoa, Louis Essola & Eteckji Fonkeng, Eltson & Tarla, Justin Ngala & Essobo Nieboukaho, Jean-Daniel & Mvondo Sakouma, Kenneth, 2017. "Lessons learned from the long-term analysis of cacao yield and stand structure in central Cameroonian agroforestry systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 95-104.
    4. Blanca López del Amo & Ortzi Akizu-Gardoki, 2024. "Derived Environmental Impacts of Organic Fairtrade Cocoa (Peru) Compared to Its Conventional Equivalent (Ivory Coast) through Life-Cycle Assessment in the Basque Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-26, January.
    5. Gama-Rodrigues, Antonio Carlos & Müller, Manfred Willy & Gama-Rodrigues, Emanuela Forestieri & Mendes, Fernando Antônio Teixeira, 2021. "Cacao-based agroforestry systems in the Atlantic Forest and Amazon Biomes: An ecoregional analysis of land use," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    6. Meine van Noordwijk & Richard Coe & Fergus L. Sinclair & Eike Luedeling & Jules Bayala & Catherine W. Muthuri & Peter Cooper & Roeland Kindt & Lalisa Duguma & Christine Lamanna & Peter A. Minang, 2021. "Climate change adaptation in and through agroforestry: four decades of research initiated by Peter Huxley," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 1-33, June.
    7. Tennhardt, Lina & Lazzarini, Gianna & Weisshaidinger, Rainer & Schader, Christian, 2022. "Do environmentally-friendly cocoa farms yield social and economic co-benefits?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:21:y:2016:i:1:p:67-80. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.