Coffee and Cashew Agroforestry Development

Overview

For hillside farming families in Bandarban, rice alone has never provided enough income to weather a bad season — pushing many toward short-term slash-and-burn cultivation that degrades the same slopes they depend on. This project introduces coffee, cashew, and fruit trees as shade-grown intercrops planted alongside existing food crops, giving households a second and third income stream without expanding their cultivated footprint.

Our Approach

SSEAFA provides grafted cashew and coffee seedlings, hands-on grafting and pruning training, and — critically — a guaranteed first-buyer agreement through a partner cooperative, so farmers aren't left holding a harvest with nowhere to sell it. Because both crops take two to four years to reach full production, the program also supports interim income through fast-growing vegetable intercrops planted in the same rows.

Impact So Far

The earliest-planted cashew trees are entering their first productive harvest this year, and early coffee yields — while still small — are already fetching premium prices as shade-grown, agroforestry-certified beans through the cooperative's buyer network.