Tree-crop commodities

FTA posits that the incorporation and management of companion trees in cocoa and coffee production systems, alongside appropriate fertilizer and pest control, can increase and sustain productivity of existing stands and buffer against climate change; that rubber and oil palm production systems can be made more sustainable through intercropping; and that smallholders can derive higher income from product sales through improved certification schemes and by exploiting specialist market niches, which lead to the following key research questions.

How can smallholder tree-crop commodity production systems be sustainably managed in the face of climate change, price volatility, declining yield and soil fertility following forest conversion, coupled with constraints on opening new forest areas, and those imposed by the dynamics of migration? What is required in terms of an enabling environment to switch from unsustainable monocultures to more diverse and resilient production practices?