Shade trees in the tea gardens: uses, advantages and drawbacks

An overview of the pros and cons of having shade trees in your tea gardens. I talk mainly about the ecosystem services provided as well as the potential drawbacks it can bring.

As usual in agriculture, there is no one size fit all solution, you have to properly understand your current agricultural system before deciding on what to implement.

Further reading:

Beer, J. (1987). Advantages, disadvantages and desirable characteristics of shade trees for coffee, cacao and tea. Agroforestry systems, 5(1), 3-13.

Belcher, B., Michon, G., Angelsen, A., Pérez, M. R., & Asbjornsen, H. (2005). The socioeconomic conditions determining the development, persistence, and decline of forest garden systems. Economic Botany, 59(3), 245-253.

McCulloch, J. S. G., Pereira, H. C., Kerfoot, O., & Goodchild, N. A. (1965). Effect of shade trees on tea yields. Agricultural meteorology, 2(6), 385-399.

agroforestry,ecology,tea plantation management,agriculture,