Smallholder farmers are key agents of change in the global fight against climate change. By helping its members to adopt agroforestry practices, ASOCAFE – the Coffee Growers Association of Taipiplaya in western Bolivia – is fostering climate-resilient landscapes and better living conditions for its members. 

High in the mountains and cloud forests of the Yungas region – known as the coffee capital of Bolivia – coffee-growing families of ASOCAFE are hard at work. Established in 1990, the aim of ASOCAFE was to help increase family yields and export volumes of coffee by implementing practices that improve and diversify production. Today, it has 199 members, including men, women and children, from 34 communities. 

In the early days, coffee of traditional varieties was, in many cases, the only crop marketed by the farmers. Nowadays, things have changed and although coffee is still the main product, coffee of improved varieties is being sold and packaged for diverse markets, alongside other products such as avocados and citrus fruits.

Over the years, the cooperative has faced many challenges. For example, in the early 2000s, the only access to market was via a 61km stretch of treacherous road known as the “Highway of Death”. Today, the biggest challenge is no longer transportation but climate change which is threatening their food security and livelihoods. ASOCAFE is helping its members become more climate resilient by supporting them to adopt agroforestry practices. 

Creating a carefully balanced agroforestry system

It’s not easy to mix crops with trees in agroforestry systems. Smallholder farmers have to find out which trees to plant, obtain seed, learn how to cultivate, weed and maintain more complex arrays of plants, manage additional labour requirements, find markets for new tree crops and so on. But working together in an association has helped them overcome these challenges and spread this new approach. 

With support from the FFF, ASOCAFE is adopting agroforestry practices to build climate resilience by integrating leguminous and other shade trees and additional crops into their 148 hectares of coffee plantations. The cooperative's success is highlighted in IIED’s recently-published case study – the first in a series of case studies on the innovative tactics used by forest and farm producer organisations or Indigenous Peoples and local community groups to upscale the uptake of agroforestry systems. 

ASOCAFE members have experimented with different tree species to find those that are best suited to their plots and which improve coffee cultivation. Their choice of species is based on the ability of the tree to provide shade, improve the soil, and generate additional products for household consumption and/or sale. 

Choosing the right combination of species to thrive in an agroforestry system is really important. The plants in the agroforestry systems of ASOCAFE members can be split into three categories:

• the upper-canopy timber trees, such as cedar, toco, and mara, which create shade and protect from the wind, helping to create good growing conditions for the crops below
• the middle-canopy timber and fruit trees, such as avocado, mandarin and the “ice-cream bean”, which contribute to soil fertility, water conservation and protect against soil erosion
• the lower-level shade-tolerant crops which include coffee and other agricultural money-making crops like citrus fruits, bananas, cassava, beans, maize and achiote spice 

This combination of forest trees, fruit trees and cash crops is an agroforestry model which can be adopted by forest and farm producers elsewhere, tailored to the species that grow well in their region. 

Supporting members to adopt agroforestry

ASOCAFE has been instrumental in supporting its members to adopt agroforestry systems. They have provided workshops, courses and technical assistance to farmers, introducing practices such as no-burn checking, fertilisation, pruning and weeding. They have also facilitated access to improved seeds and seedlings, such as from the Bolivian National Coffee Programme, and promoted the use of seeds from the partners’ own coffee plantations. They have promoted the renovation of coffee plantations with more productive and resistant varieties, as well as the cultivation of forest and fruit trees alongside coffee, increasing product diversity and food security. 

Agroforestry brings bounteous benefits

Although managing agroforestry plots is more complex and requires more labour, knowledge and skills, ASOCAFE members are already seeing the multiple benefits of combining trees and crops. Their plots are healthier and more productive. In particular, with more shade, farmers have noticed that their coffee ripens evenly and their yield has increased. 

Farmers also noted that the presence of trees and other species contributes to the generation of organic matter which enriches the soil with nutrients. Organic matter also helps retain soil moisture, which is crucial for agriculture in areas where rainfall is not constant. The shade provided by the trees helps regulate soil temperature, which is beneficial for microorganisms that are essential for soil fertility. And the wide variety of plants growing on their plots promotes biodiversity by attracting pollinators and other beneficial organisms. With more crops to sell, the farmers can spread their risks of production over several sources of income to give greater resilience – as well as benefiting from better nutrition. 

What next?

Looking forward, ASOCAFE has many plans and hopes for the future, such as improving harvest and post-harvest processes, modernising the drying process, positioning its brand, including more women and youth, and establishing a coffee roastery. Adopting and maintaining agroforestry practices which have improved the health and yield of their plots has helped them lay the foundations for a more secure future in which to realize these ambitions.

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Read the case study: Escobar Guevara, J. and Fernández Arancibia, B. (2025). Innovations to promote adoption of coffee agroforestry in Bolivia: the role of ASOCAFÉ. IIED, London. Available at https://www.iied.org/22641g