Coffee-Banana Intercropping: Implementation guidance for policymakers and investors
The Practice Briefs by The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA) intend to provide practical operational information on climate-smart agricultural practices. This practice brief (PDF) focuses on Coffee-Banana Intercropping (CBI) to address all 3 pillars of climate smart agriculture (CSA) in a multifaceted way. 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. CBI in both Arabica and Robusta generates 50% more revenue then either coffee or banana monocrop. Farmers’ risk is reduced by practising CBI, making them more resilient to climate change impacts. Transformational changes are needed in the attitude towards CBI, to support scaling up of the practice.