Research conducted by CIRAD and its partners aim to develop models of functional associations that take into account both the needs of farmers and the environmental constraints. In particular, this implies to describe the agroforestry systems of perennial cash crops such as cocoa, coffee, or clove to:

• analyze their eco-physiological functioning, 
• assess their agro-ecological and socio-economic performance 
• characterize the farmers' cultural practices. 

This research now allows to have elements to understand the dynamics of these systems that develop differently over time depending on local soil and climatic conditions, situations and strategies of farmers.

With the project, the agro-ecological and socioeconomic determinants  of the agroforestry systems sustainability and their changing performance over time will be better known.

Development and decision support prediction tools, based on eco-physiological functioning of the species found in the systems, will help quantifying the various complex processes (nutrient cycling, light interception, distribution of resources).

It will be possible to meet the needs of farmers by providing the cultural practices most appropriate for their needs to intensify agroforestry systems based on cocoa, coffee, or clove, without reducing their high environmental value.

The project activities are divided into five work packages (WP):

1: Project management, coordination of activities and capitalization of knowledge

2: Characterisation of farming systems and identification of long term drivers at household and landscape levels

3: Assessment of the productive and environmental performances of AFS and their synergies with food-crops

4: Characterization of the AFS main-crop quality for value addition to farmers’ incomes

5: Dissemination of results

The interactions between the activities are described in the Figure below: