By analysing existing empirical studies we want to investigate the relevancy of each of these factors for smallholder farmers’ choices on agroforestry methods in sub-Saharan Africa. A survey performed by \citet{Deressa_2009} amongst farmers in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia indicates that failures to successfully adapt farming practices are primarily a result of a lack of information, insufficient financial resources, a shortage of labour and land, as well as a poor potential for irrigation methods. In a study specifically looking at agroforestry, \citet{Mbow_2014b} identify the lack of public policy support and the disposition of farmers as the major adoption barriers. More specifically, they highlight the counteracting role of national policies that institutionally segregate forest from agriculture and thus miss the opportunities for synergetic effects.

Another study done by \citet{Rusinga_2014} on smallholder communal famers in Zimbabwe revealed that most farmers received information on adaptive strategies that do not include agroforestry but emphasise different strategies such as evidence and manipulation of seasonal rainfall variability, planting of drought resistant crops, conservation farming methods, early planting and irrigation. Most of the information is provided to the farmers by NGOs, amongst them many internationally operating ones such as Caritas, which frequently recommend adaptation measures that are more compatible with mono-cropping culture than with agroforestry. This is surprising in that the success of monoculture production of annual crops has been proven to be significantly lower in African regions than elsewhere \cite{Djurfeldt_2005}.