The Ecological Limits of Poverty Alleviation in an African Forest-Agriculture Landscape

Cocoa yields in Ghana remain low. This has variously been attributed to low rates of fertiliser application, pollinator limitation and particularly dry growing conditions. In this paper we use an African forest-agriculture landscape dominated by cocoa (Theobroma cacao) to develop an ecological production function, allowing us to identify key ecological and management limits acting on cocoa yields simultaneously. These included more consistent...