Descriptive and logistic regression approaches for analyzing the factors affecting the adoption of cocoa agroforests by farmers in the Centre region of Cameroon

After the 1990s drop of cocoa prices in the world market accompanied by liberalization in this sector, farmers in the Centre region of Cameroon were advised to supplement their revenue by shifting from the mono-crop of cocoa to the cultivation of cocoa agroforest. But until now, this practice is still timidly adopted by cocoa producers. This paper analyses the factors determining the adoption of cocoa agroforest by using both the descriptive statistics and logit model from data collected from 128 farmers residing in this area. The results reveal that, farmers adopting that technique are mostly young, male, member of peasant association, member in rural credit system, frequently in contact with extension agents, educated, land renters, employers of salarial labour, occupant of managerial position, with large household size, with previous practice of crops’ association or rotation and with low cocoa yield during the previous years. However, the likelihood is low to adopt the cocoa agroforest for those old farmers, owners of large land area, and with old cocoa orchards. The study therefore recommends to the government to popularize the cocoa agroforest by reviewing these disfavourable factors and by rewarding/subsidizing farmers planting supplementary trees within their cocoa orchards.