This paper investigates the potential labour efficiencies and socio-cultural benefits of agroforestry for coffee smallholders practising low input production strategies. Employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, our case study of coffee smallholders in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, shows that despite managing very small holdings of coffee trees (< 500 trees), productivity is challenged by labour shortages and by very low levels of farm inputs. Constraints on labour supply include barriers to mobilising women’s labour; competition for labour from alternative livelihoods; the absence of a market in hired labour; and the time, labour and income demands of the indigenous socio-economy. The indigenous social economy draws heavily on smallholders’ time, labour and coffee income, to the extent that there is little labour for coffee garden maintenance and little coffee income invested in other farm inputs. To address these input shortfalls we explore the potential of ecosystem services from shade-grown coffee to generate labour efficiencies to partly fill some of the unmet maintenance requirements of coffee gardens and to partly fill the role of other farm inputs. Coffee extension must become more holistic and consider smallholder families’ diverse livelihoods and recognise the enduring nature of the low input production strategy, its socio-cultural value, its role in determining life quality, and thus its resistance to change. Extension must align with, rather than challenge, the low input production strategy to promote the potential labour efficiencies and benefits of agroforestry to create more resilient, sustainable and culturally-enriching coffee-based farming systems.

本文研究了农林业对实行低投入生产策略的咖啡小农的潜在劳动效率和社会文化效益。我们采用定性和定量方法，对巴布亚新几内亚高地的咖啡小农户进行案例研究，结果表明，尽管管理着非常少量的咖啡树（< 500 棵树），但生产力受到劳动力短缺和农场水平极低的挑战输入。对劳动力供应的限制包括动员妇女劳动力的障碍；来自替代生计的劳动力竞争；缺乏雇佣劳动力市场；以及当地社会经济的时间、劳动力和收入需求。土著社会经济严重依赖小农的时间、劳动力和咖啡收入，以至于几乎没有劳动力用于维护咖啡园，也很少有咖啡收入投资于其他农业投入。为了解决这些投入不足的问题，我们探索了遮荫种植咖啡的生态系统服务的潜力，以提高劳动效率，部分满足咖啡园的一些未满足的维护要求，并部分填补其他农场投入的作用。咖啡推广必须更加全面，考虑小农家庭的多样化生计，并认识到低投入生产战略的持久性、其社会文化价值、其在决定生活质量方面的作用，以及其对变革的抵制。推广必须与低投入生产战略相一致，而不是挑战，以提高潜在的劳动效率和农林业的效益，从而创建更具弹性、可持续和文化丰富的咖啡种植系统。