ROLE AND STATUS OF PLANTAIN IN AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS OF SOUTH WEST CAMEROON: WHICH PATHWAYS TO PRODUCTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM?

South West of Cameroon is usually cultivated with cocoa as cashcrop. The farmers incomes are affected by variations of the cocoa price and perturbations of the local economy. The two ways to survive are diversification of cocoa plantations with plantain and other varied foodcrops or extension of foodcrops by clearing and burning the forest. The high number of cropped species and technical practices means complexity. The main target is to identify the cropping systems which would be satisfactory on the agronomical, environmental and economical point of view. Twenty associations related to species composition are observed from 200 plots, within 15 villages, in 6 microregions. It shows a high number of cocoa-based associations with other perennials and mostly plantain as a main foodcrops. The historical analysis points out the status of plantain as the main crop after deforestation in association with perennials or food crops authorizing an adaptative strategy. His description first step focuses mainly on the types of associations then on the types of successions. It is a prior study for a sustainability analysis.