Coffee-Banana Intercropping is a climate-smart agricultural practice based on indigenous knowledge. It increases farmer incomes, improves resilience to climatic impacts, and sequesters higher amounts of carbon as opposed to monocropping systems. The practice also has positive effects for rural women and household nutrition.

1. 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

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

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

4. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture – Institut international d’agriculture tropicale – www.iita.org
Profitability & Resource matching
>> Maize is least profitable.
>> Coffee main cash crop + banana main food staple
Courtesy: Ernst Ruoff and Mandy Malan

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

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

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

8. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture – Institut international d’agriculture tropicale – www.iita.org
Triple-wins >> Improved yields
Courtesy: Henk van Rikxoort et al.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

19. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture – Institut international d’agriculture tropicale – www.iita.org
“Take care of your bananas, and your bananas will take care of your coffee”
Prof. J.Y.K. Zake
Thank you for listening