ECOTOP is redefining how farming works with nature, not against it
Which crop do you work with?
Why ECOTOP
In the 1990s, after a visit from Ernst Götsch, Joachim Milz and pioneer farmers in Alto Beni developed Dynamic Agroforestry on their own plots, looking for answers no classroom could give.
The Sara Ana long-term trial with FiBL compares DAF cocoa with monoculture on the same site, with peer-reviewed results. As the pioneers of the method, ECOTOP has taken part in DAF research from the start.
Our trainers are farmers and agronomists. Methods are passed on plot by plot, in the field, not on paper, and the support continues until soils and yields show the change.
What we offer
Healthier soils, higher yields and income from the first year, with the local capacity to run and scale it.
01Feasibility, system design and implementation of DAF projects, from the first assessment to handover to local teams.
Learn more →Optional, and usually combined with one of the three services above.
Field data, farm mapping and live dashboards, built for agroforestry. For regulated commodities, EUDR due diligence comes on top.
Where we work
Dynamic agroforestry projects in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Choose a country to see its projects.
Current projects
Earlier projects
Carbon removal, measured
+10.4t CO2/ha/yr
more than conventional cocoa monoculture
Side-by-side data from the SysCom long-term trial in Sara Ana, Bolivia, run with FiBL: cocoa under DAF stores 17.3 t CO2/ha/yr in biomass, conventional monoculture 6.9.
Biomass carbon after 14 years, averaged annually. Krause et al. (2025), Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, SysCom Bolivia.
Recent missions and news from our teams in the field.
Tanzania · ResearchAt a week-long workshop with SUA and APOPO HeroTREEs, we helped agree on simple indicators that farmers can track for years.
NewsletterTraining in Ghana, plot monitoring in Sierra Leone, and new insights on pruning and LCA in Dynamic Agroforestry.
Nigeria · CocoaIn Brussels, Joachim Milz and Nikolas Haller showed how Dynamic Agroforestry can help renew ageing cocoa farms.
Issue briefA new brief from the Swiss cocoa and coffee platforms, with input from ECOTOP, on gender equality in farming communities.
Research · CocoaA Master’s thesis tested it on a cocoa agroforestry plot with SysCom data. It works in places and breaks down in others.
Tell us about your farms or your sourcing region. We get back to you to talk through what Dynamic Agroforestry could do there.
