ECOTOP tested Dynamic Agroforestry (DAF) as a fire-free, input-free alternative to slash-and-burn farming. Researchers ran upland rice trials in Alto Beni, Bolivia, from 2014 to 2018.
DAF outperformed conventional practice without any external inputs or crop rotation. It produced average rice yields of 1,560 kg/ha. Slash-and-burn systems rarely topped 1,000 kg/ha in year one. Slash-and-burn yields then declined in later years. Initial labor demands stayed similar between systems, but ongoing weeding dropped under DAF.
Adoption spread widely. Over 250 farmers in Bolivia now use DAF principles. More than 2,000 farmers in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso have adopted the system. Hundreds more farmers in Ecuador use it too. In Ecuador, one cooperative converted over 600 hectares of cocoa to no-burn systems. In Ghana, a separate project supported 400 hectares of diversified cocoa-based DAF.
Researchers studied soil biology on cocoa farms in Ecuador. They compared four DAF farms to four conventional monoculture farms, all aged 7 to 9 years. DAF soils showed a sharply higher fungal-to-bacterial ratio, rising from 0.29 in monoculture to 1.71 in DAF. This shift signals healthier, more forest-like soil. DAF soils also showed significantly less compaction. This improved root penetration, water retention, and resistance to diseases like Monilia and Witches’ Broom.
Farmer feedback reinforced these findings. In surveys, Ivory Coast farmers ranked no-burn practices and educational pruning as DAF’s most valuable innovations.
Results held consistent across four countries with different crops and cultures. This consistency points to strong transferability for DAF as a farming model.
