Planned and unplanned agroforestry systems in relation to social-economic changes: Cocoa combined with palm-wine in Côte d'Ivoire

Wild oil palm growth is so vigorous that it may be almost considered as a 'weed' in neglected and abandoned cocoa farms. However, as in West-Africa, oil palm is highly valued for its production of palm wine, it may provide useful non-cocoa revenues. In the central-west region of Cote d'Ivoire, it especially played a major role in the 1990s when farmers simultaneously faced the impact of treeageing and the collapse of cocoa prices, hence of cocoa revenues. Wine tapping is here done only by cutting down palm trees. Does this 'agroforestry' system deserve its name? To answer the question from an economic perspective, the author evaluates the impact of this type of provisional or semi-permanent oil palm and cocoa association in terms of revenues and risks as well as in terms of life cycles and institutional changes. (Resume d'auteur)