Agroforestry-based diversification for planting cocoa in the savannah of Central Cameroon

Cocoa is a crop often cultivated after clearing forests. This ensures, at least in the initial years, favourable conditions for good agriculture production: a relatively high level of soil organic matter, nutrient availability, limited amount of weeds and reduced pest pressure (Chap. 1). How can we explain the emergence of a new cocoa frontier on degraded soils of the savannah areas in Central Cameroon? Agroforestry-based diversification plays a central ecological and economic role in the establishment of these cocoa farms in the savannah. At the agronomic level, the reconstitution of a multi-species cocoa cultivation system by farmers in the forest-savannah interface area of central Cameroon helps overcome the main constraints presented by such areas for cocoa cultivation (uneven rainfall distribution, poor soil quality and presence of Imperata cylindrica). At the economic level, the benefits of a cocoa agroforestry system in the savannah are also confirmed. (Résumé d'auteur