However, the dominance of the intensive mono-specific cropping system, socio-economic constraints and climate change raise questions about the future of rubber cultivation. Rubber-based agroforestry systems (RAS) allow diversification of income and improvement of certain ecosystem services. Combined with food crops, these systems can also play a role in food security.

The development of RAS comes up against various constraints: political, technical, and image. Competition for nutrient and water resources in such systems also raises questions in the context of climate change. The RUBIS project for RUbber agroforestry Breeding Initiative for Smallholders (see Site: www.rubis-project.org) focuses on improving rubber and associated crops, and understanding how RAS work. Within a framework of participatory selection conducted in Indonesia, solutions will be co-constructed with stakeholders of the rubber and food crops industry.

The internship subject consists of finalizing a literature review of approximately 300 articles stored in the Zotero library management system, entering the relevant data into a data file, and performing a meta-analysis of this data. A review-type article will then be prepared. This bibliographic study should include the RAS but also the tropical agroforestry systems, in general, which integrate food crops in order to identify the varieties of food crops adapted but also their genetic diversity and cultural practices.

The student will also be in contact with various French and Indonesian researchers from the RUBIS project as well as research actors identified during the RUBIS International Workshop on the Resilience of Rubber-based Agroforestry Systems in the Context of Global Change. Finally, the conclusions of this study may be presented in November 2022 during the First RUBIS Multilateral Workshop.