Evaluación económica de sistemas agroforestales de cacao con laurel y poró en Costa Rica

Abstract

Two agroforestry production systems (13 years old) are financially analyzed and compared: Theobroma cacao with the timber tree laurel (Cordia alliodora) and T. cacao with the legume tree poró (Erythrina poeppigiana). The question to be answered is: Does the timber production outweigh the supposed positive effect of the legume tree on crop production? Though the timber trees are not mature at age 13, advantages are found for the cacao/timber tree system with respect to the cacao/legume tree system in terms of net present worth and benefit/cost ratio of returns to land and labour are. Sensitivity tests show that this advantage is small for returns to land but very stable for returns to labour. Projections to age 25 show that the advantages will hold over time. The opportunity costs of capital are crucial. The used interest rate of 10 per cent may, for the potential user group of farmers with small to medium size holdings, be below the capital costs and relatively slight increases in this rate will erase the advantages of the cacao/timber tree system. However, the timber trees work like a saving account offering a large cash income at the same time of timber harvest and acting as a risk minimizing factor. Both properties may well offset lower returns to capital for a small farmer.