Research Article

Social and Ecological Drivers of the Economic Value of Pollination Services Delivered to Coffee in Central Uganda

Table 1

Management systems of coffee in central Uganda.

CharacteristicsCoffee farm management intensity systems (management intensity classes/categories)
Extensive-traditional coffee fieldsIntensive-organic coffee fieldsIntensive-commercial coffee fields

Shade cover (%) and shading regimes Shaded coffee fields:
>51–70% shade cover
Moderately shaded coffee fields:
>11–50% shade
Sunny coffee fields:
0–10% shade

Type of the coffee field Small-scale coffee fields Small-scale coffee fieldsSmall-scale fields

Farm management system Traditional farmsOrganic farms Commercial farms

Agroforestry shading trees (i) Mixed natural shading trees
(ii) Traditional system fully shaded and with rustic management systems, where dense native trees are associated with coffee primarily to provide the shade.
(iii) Coffee plantations are often located beneath the canopy of native and remnant tropical forest tree species and the vegetation in the lower strata is often not removed
(i) Mixture of coffee with native shade tree species, plantations of diverse, and abundant indigenous (agroforestry/apiary) tree species to provide shade to coffee.
(ii) More than 3–13 multipurpose tree species are associated with coffee trees and planted between rows of coffee trees at density of 50–200 stems/ha on average
(i) Modern small-scale coffee farming systems characterized by coffee genotypes (cultivars) grown in sunny environments.
(ii) Shade tree species are associated with coffee trees at a density of 3–20 stems/ha planted at the boarder of the coffee farm.
(iii) In most case, there are no shade trees associated with coffee trees

Coffee plant size (height) Long to medium plant trees:
3–5 m height
Long to medium plant trees:
3–5 m height
Short size of coffee plant trees:
2-3 m height

Age at harvest, productivity, and life span of trees(i) Generally set buds at 4 to 5 years after plantation.
(ii) Coffee trees have a productivity life of >30 years
Productivity of 10–20 years(i) Age at the time of first harvest is 3–5 years.
(ii) Productivity of 10–20 years

Coffee plant densityLow density:
100–1500 coffee plants/ha
Moderated density:
500 to 1500 coffee plants/ha
High density:
600–10000 coffee plants/ha

Coffee yield (t/ha)LowHighHigh

Coffee tree yield (Kg/tree)High yield Low to moderate yieldModerated yield

Quality of coffee bean Higher MediumLower to higher

Application of agrochemicalsNo use of chemical and organic pesticidesNo use of artificial chemical pesticides but intensive use of organic or natural pesticides/fertilizersIntensive use of chemical pesticides/fertilizers

Pruning regime Light to no pruning regimeLight pruning regimeHeavy pruning systems

Seasonality in labour utilizationSeasonal labor utilizationSeasonal labor utilizationYear round and intensive use of labor

Vegetation temperatureLow air and soil temperatureLow to moderated temperature of soils and vegetationHigh air and soil temperatures

Litter productionHigh leaf litter High leaf litterLow leaf litter

Disease and pests incidence Low to moderated incidence of diseases and pestsLow to moderated incidence of diseases and pestsHigh to moderated incidence of disease and pests

Incidence of insect pollinators High incidence of insect pollinatorsHigh incidence of insect pollinatorsLow to moderate incidence of pollinators

Vegetation structural complexity Highly complexComplexLow structural complexity

Level of weed coverLow weed coverLow weed coverHigh weed cover

Intercropping (polyculture/monoculture) systemsCoffee is intercropped with two to five annual/biannual crops and with one perennial crop (banana)(i) Integration of coffee production systems with beekeeping activities and with zero grazing to produce local cow-dung and organic manures.
(ii) In most cases, coffee is mixed with Vanilla that uses coffee trees as stake since it is a climber crop species
In rare cases, commercial coffee fields are mixed with two to three subsistence annual/subannual crop species

Expected performance of the coffee management systemTraditional coffee farms are likely to contribute significantly to the conservation of biodiversity in farmlands of Uganda. However, these coffee fields are generally poorly managed. Farmers invest less time in the production of coffee. Farmers do no specific management to improve the coffee production.
Here, coffee is not the primary objective of the producer but probably coffee is cultivated to produce additional cash to the family
Coffee is grown beneath the native forest canopy together with several other crop plant species for local subsistence (beans, cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, bananas, avocados, oranges, etc.). The system is likely to enhance biodiversity in agricultural landscapes since it is managed intensively by using natural products as inputs
This system is almost a small-scale intensive monoculture system. Since coffee is grown with a lot of inputs, it is expected that yield from this coffee production system would be higher than that in traditional and in commercial systems