Vincent de Leijster

114 Chapter 6 Abstract Agroforestry diversifies monoculture systems by planting trees and has the potential to improve environmental conditions. However, it is yet unknown how the implementation of agroforestry affects the development of economic performance. Here we investigate the development of economic costs and benefits of coffee farms in Colombia that have transitioned from monoculture to agroforestry. We used a space-for-time substitution approach to reconstruct a chronosequence of agroforestry coffee farms, with 1-40 years since tree planting. We surveyed 154 farmers to determine the management costs and the benefits delivered on the farm, and calculated economic performance indicators: coffee gross revenue, coffee net revenue, actual net revenue, and potential net revenue. We found that coffee yield decreased with time since transition, but net revenues were stable over time. We found that agroforestry farms produced more co-products, fruits and timber, which contributed to the net revenues. Yet only 30% of such co-products were brought to market and therefore represent still unrealized revenue of agroforestry farms in comparison to monoculture farms. Further, we found that pest control intensity, altitude, farm size and intermediary choice better explained economic performance than (the development of) canopy characteristics. These results suggest that the implementation of agroforestry in monoculture coffee plantations did not reduce economic performance, thus indeed agroforestry in coffee landscapes can and should be encouraged as it improves environmental conditions in a profitable way.