A short season roundup: what we planted, what we learned, and what's growing in the plots this past month.
On Site
Grafting for Protection of Natural Parks
MaMaBay, Madagascar
Grafting workshops were held to teach local Malagasy smallholders how to properly graft agroforestry trees for maintenance.
This is part of conservational project with the Wildlife Conservation Society chapter in Madagascar to create Dynamic Agroforestry (DAF) buffer areas as a
means of protecting natural parks.
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Changing Attitudes from Slash-and-Burn to Slash-and-Mulch
Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta, Colombia
An initiative to help the indigenous Arhuaco move towards slash-and-mulch to retain field quality without denigrating indigenous customs and way of life. The mission was conducted alongside the Asoarhuaco Association.
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Calendar
2027 (Tentative)
International Course on DAF Management
Live session on DAF management for implementation. More info to be provided later on.
Reading
Conservation-Driven Cocoa: A Case Study in Dynamic Agroforestry
A closer look into ECOTOP's joint project with WCS Madagascar on how DAF is being used as a buffer zone to separate farmlands from protected ecological zones.
Check out our impact →Dynamic Agroforestry without burning and use of external inputs for annual and perennial crop production in the tropics
Our in-depth analysis on the impacts of slash-and-burn compared to slash-and-mulch that was presented at the 6th World Congress of Agroforestry.
Read the paper →Improving pruning and water management in Dynamic Agroforestry (DAF) cocoa production systems
A look into the expansion of the greater 'Scaling Cocoa Sustainability' project with research on how high canopy pruning affects cocoa productivity across Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador
Take a look →The DAF Tracker
Would you like a more effective way of keeping track of how new DAF plots are doing? The DAF tracker is a tool capable of monitoring and recording changes of DAF plots in real time. Made with farmers in mind, the DAF tracker can run on any smartphone with offline capabilities.
Learn more here
Crop of the Month
Theobroma cacao L.
ECOTOP's staple crop. The fruit that is eventually transformed into delectable chocolates grows in shaded systems with tropical climate and high annual rainfall. While West Africa is the primary source of this fruit globally, declining yields and erratic dry seasons threaten consistent supply chains. We possess decades of experience helping smallholders convert their plantations into resilient Dynamic Agroforestry systems and have worked with several partners globally such as HALBA, Lindt, Tradin Organic and others.
Learn more about cocoa→
