Coffee Banana Intercropping: An Intimate Relationship with Triple Wins

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture – Institut international d’agriculture tropicale – www.iita.org

Piet van Asten, Dennis Ochola, Lydia Wairegi, Anaclet Nibasumba, Laurence Jassogne, David Mukasa

Coffee-Banana Intercropping an intimate relationship with triple wins


Outline •  Systems Approach to improving livelihoods

•  Profitability and Resource Matching

•  Coffee–Banana Intercropping (CBI) on the farm

•  Triple-wins from CBI

•  Challenges to Adoption of CBI


Systems Approach to Improving Livelihoods

1.  Improve the overall efficiency of the production system

2.  Ensure that household investments = nutrition and income benefits for all

3.  Enhance the enabling factors from community

to national scale


Profitability & Resource matching >> Maize is least profitable.

>> Coffee main cash crop + banana main food staple

Courtesy: Ernst Ruoff and Mandy Malan


Coffee-Banana Intercropping on the Farm

!  Ideal for communities that are constrained by land but labour is adequate. !  Prerequisite for sustainable CBI is ability to manage competition for nutrients,

water and light >> appropriate spacing and densities.


Triple-wins from Coffee-Banana Intercropping

•  Banana are rich source of vital vitamins A, B and D for children.

•  Banana suppl. income worth 10,000 US$ in years when coffee not productive.

•  With LER <1.5 CBI produces same quantity of coffee and banana on less land.

•  50% more income than either coffee or banana monocrop.

•  Women who traditionally do not own land, to make good use of limited space occupied by coffee.

•  Buffers against biennial fluctuations in productivity. •  Banana offer shade protection against weather shocks.

•  Reduced competition for water compared to other shade trees. •  Coffee and banana quality enhanced through above and below ground complementarity. •  Reduced distribution, success, spread and impact of invasive species of plants, pests and

pathogens i) spatial disruption of pest and pathogen dynamics, ii) conservation and build-up of natural enemies against disease vectors, iii) general and specific

soil suppressiveness, iv) deterrence and allelopathy

•  Land use system that increases SOM pool and stabilize SOC.

•  In situ mulch from banana system has a higher biomass turnover, which helps to recycle organic matter and nutrients.

•  CBI has 1.5 times higher soil carbon stocks and 26% larger total carbon pools compared to banana monocultures.

•  LER <1.5 reduced carbon footprint of the system.


Triple-wins >> Enhanced incomes

Total Revenue Arabica intercrop 4,400 US$/ha/yr Robusta intercrop 1,800 US$/ha/yr Arabica Mono 2,600 US$/ha/yr Robusta Mono 1,100 US$/ha/yr


Triple-wins >> Improved yields

Courtesy: Henk van Rikxoort et al.


Triple-wins >> Improved coffee quality

Outstanding – 90-100%; Excellent – 85-89%; Very good – 80-84%; Below specialty – < 80%

!  Quality of coffee and banana are mutually enhanced through above and below ground complementarity.

!  Above ground moderation by shading reduces temperature in the coffee canopy by 2 oC.

!  Shading improves physiological behavior of coffee: photosynthesis & Leaf Area Index.

!  Coffee produces heavier and larger cherries = reduced over bearing.

!  Buffering from biennial fluctuations in productivity.


Triple-wins >> Reduced pests and disease incidence

Coffee Berry Disease

!  CBI contributes to spatial disruption of pest and pathogen dynamics.

!  Conservation and build-up of natural enemies against pests and disease vectors.

!  Soil suppressiveness, deterrence and allelopathy.

!  Banana-shaded coffee systems experience 50% lower incidence of coffee leaf rust and black coffee twig borer than in tree-shaded systems.

Twig Borer Disease

Coffee Wilt Disease

Coffee Leaf Rust

<< Bananas not secondary hosts of key coffee pests and diseases


Triple-wins >> Reduction of GHG Emissions

!  CBI is among the land use systems that enhances the production resource use efficiency by increasing the SOM pool and stabilizes SOC.

!  Average carbon stocks in shaded coffee plants is 42.5 Mg/ha in traditional polycultures compared to 10.5 Mg/ha in unshaded monocultures (van Rikxoort et al., 2014).

!  CBI systems contained 1.5 times higher

soil carbon stocks and 26% larger total carbon pools compared to banana monocultures.

41.7

32.6

22.3 Carbon in shade trees (t/ha)

Mexico Guatemala Costa Rica

5.6

5.3

4.4

Carbon in coffee plant (t/ha)


Challenges to Adoption of CBI

!  Little is known about the role of gender and CBI for household food security.

! Gender inequality in land ownership,

and limited opportunities to break into coffee production.

! Women vast proportion of labour in coffee and banana farming BUT their effort is underappreciated .

!  Need for policies and technological

and institutional interventions that allow women to benefit from CBI.

Gender issues

Photos: Neil Palmer, CIAT


!  Many government in East and Central Africa have not yet officially endorsed coffee intercropping.

!  Misconception that monocropping is a form of agricultural modernization necessary to achieve the African Green Revolution.

!  Coffee monocrop is a colonial-era

recommendation enforced at a time when the key emphasis was increasing coffee exports, without concerns for long-term sustainability.

!  For example, Rwandese farmers are encouraged to consolidate fragments of land parcels and grow coffee as a monocrop.

Divergent Government interest

Photos: Neil Palmer, CIAT


High initial capital investment !  Coffee requires high levels of initial investment

(Labour and capital) BUT Extended period for realization of economic returns (5-10 years horizon) YET farmers like to obtain a direct and immediate return for their investment.

!  In Guatemala, a farmer needs 2000 US$ as initial investment & an extra 500-700 US$ annual working capital >> beyond the reach of poor farmers accustomed to growing maize and beans.

!  The major problem is the failure of credit markets. Despite the high rates of returns sufficient to garner credit support, fluctuations in coffee price discourage credit institutions for approving agricultural loans.

!  Credit institutions lack sufficient information

and expertise to assess the risks that growers may encounter, so the loan process is cumbersome taking over year.


Conflicting interests in the coffee sector

!  Coffee certification standards and sustainability criteria differ from organization to organization.

!  Limited involvement of local private sector and financial providers.

!  Smallholder farmers inhabit a fragile space, defined by vulnerability to a volatile international market structures.

!  A cup of cappuccino may be sold at 4 US$, but many smallholder coffee growers earn less than a dollar a day.


Lack of site specific recommendations

! Observed variants of CBI on farmers’ fields raises questions about the adequacy to match productivity, profitability and sustainability targets.

! Blanket recommendations available to farmers originated from FAO Coffee Guidelines for Myanmar and Laos that are difficult to duplicate everywhere.

System Crop

Spacing Density (Plants/

hectare) Between rows Within rows

Monocrop

Arabica 3 1.5 2222

Robusta 3 3 1111

Banana 3 3 1111

Intercrop

Arabica 3 1.5 2222

Banana 3 4.5 740

Robusta 3 3 1111

Banana 3, 6* 3 740 *Double rows, 3 m between the two rows, 6 m between double rows


Excessive mining of soil nutrient stocks

!  Like banana, coffee is a heavy feeder requiring large amounts of nitrogen (N), and potassium (K20).

!  Nutrient uptake in a plantation yielding 10 t/ha/year fresh banana and 0.5 t/ha/year green coffee, is about 90 kg N/ha, 10 kg P/ha and 190 kg K/ha.


Unregulated field of climate change adaptation !  The diffused nature of the coffee sector with multiple actors and unregulated

climate change adaptation and mitigation agricultural activities has particularly slowed down the uptake of intercropping in coffee.

!  Need for smallholder centred strategy directed towards climate adaptable sustainable coffee production.

Eitzinger et al., 2014


“Take care of your bananas, and your bananas will take care of your coffee”

Prof. J.Y.K. Zake

Thank you for listening

Food

Coffee Banana Intercropping: An Intimate Relationship with Triple Wins