Agroforestry Coffee Magic
Integrative Question: Using a permaculture design lens a coffee farm can be very sustainable. Our group believes agroforesrty or shade coffee farming could be a reliable system. Agroforestry means growing crops with surrounding trees and shrubs for a farm with diverse benefits for the ecosystem (farmer included). In a coffee agroforestry system, erosion is reduced, nutrients are cycled more efficiently, diversity of crops for food and materials are available to the people : this aligns with earth care and people care (Verbist et. al. CATENA) (Cardoso et. al. Agroforestry systems). Soil carbon sequestration is higher in agroforestry systems, and can contribute to mitigating climate change (Tumwebaze & Byakagaba Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment). We would plant robusta and arabica species because they each have different benefits, hardiness and yield vs flavor and market price. If the climate change became too hot for arabica, we would still have robusta to rely on. We would also have fruit trees growing between the coffee plants to provide shade and food. One of these fruit trees would be cacao which could be food or another export. Ideally, the diversification of this system would ensure the community always has as much food as it needs and coffee and cacao to trade. Eventually, value can be added if farmers choose to make chocolate locally to keep the added value local.