Agroforestry, a farming system where trees are grown alongside crops, has the potential to help achieve multiple development objectives. It can help coffee farms combat climate change by acting as carbon sinks. Beyond reducing carbon emissions, agroforestry helps shield coffee plants from heat and heavy rains, increasing resilience to climate change. Further, products of agroforestry can provide important independent income stream to farmers facing extreme poverty.
In collaboration with a multinational coffee company, this project evaluates an intervention aimed to increase agroforestry adoption among coffee farmers in East Africa. Currently, many coffee farmers in East-Africa fall short of the recommended levels of agroforestry: while agronomists advise an agroforestry intensity (ratio of shade trees to coffee trees) of approximately 10%, median farmer in their sample (Rwanda) is only able to adopt agroforestry up to an intensity of about 2%.
In this project, the research team will embed a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme in existing supply chain relationship between farmers and their collaborating coffee buyer. They will study the effectiveness of providing delayed monetary incentives, leaning on robustness of a pre-existing supply chain relationship between farmers and a downstream multinational buyer.
