A careful study in Ghana concludes that “Not only does our data suggest limited benefits of agroforests for soil fertility, but it also demonstrates that the inclusion of shade trees comes at the cost of lower cocoa growth and lower short-term yields. We found reduced growth of cocoa trees under individual shade trees … and reduced growth and yield of cocoa trees at the plot-scale with increasing shade-tree cover. Our empirical results are in line with the findings of Wade et al. (2010) and Clough et al. (2011) who reported decreasing yields with increasing shade-tree abundance based on data obtained from interviews with farmers […]Based on the evidence provided by our results, it appears difficult to justify the implementation of agroforests for the long-term sustain-ability of cocoa yields based on improvements in soil fertility.”