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CIFOR–ICRAF publishes over 750 publications every year on agroforestry, forests and climate change, landscape restoration, rights, forest policy and much more – in multiple languages.

CIFOR–ICRAF addresses local challenges and opportunities while providing solutions to global problems for forests, landscapes, people and the planet.

We deliver actionable evidence and solutions to transform how land is used and how food is produced: conserving and restoring ecosystems, responding to the global climate, malnutrition, biodiversity and desertification crises. In short, improving people’s lives.

Fluctuating Tree Commodity Price: Perils and ways to reduce vulnerability

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Tree commodities are essential agricultural export products for Africa. Among them, coffee and cocoa stand out in terms of production area, the number of livelihoods they support, and contribution to the GDP of exporting countries. These two commodities’ livelihood impacts are primarily because they are produced mainly by smallholder farmers, and they impact natural resources, especially the forest. Coffee, for instance, supports over a million along its value chain in Ethiopia alone. Cocoa also contributes significantly to livelihoods in West and Central Africa. In Cameroon, located in Central Africa, cocoa remains an essential source of income for approximately 1.4 million people. Additionally, cocoa farming is a fundamental source of foreign currency, accounting for about 15% of total annual exports revenue in 2009 (KIT 2010, Alemagi et al 2014) and 2.1% of Cameroon’s Gross National Product (Armathé et al 2013).

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