Shade-grown coffee is an agroforestry system which combines coffee with shade trees, including fruit, timber and leguminous species, in a systematic fashion. Shade-grown coffee is a traditional and complex agroforestry system where coffee is associated with various other species in different storeys (or ‘levels’). This provides ecologically and economically sustainable use of natural resources. While based on a traditional system the shade-grown coffee technology has a specific layout, and a reduced number of intercropped species.