My impression from reading the article was that this wasn't a choice of a gao tree monoculture over better methods, but actually a choice between this monocultu

My impression from reading the article was that this wasn't a choice of a gao tree monoculture over better methods, but actually a choice between this monoculture and widespread slash-and-burn [0]. See also, [1]. It may not be the best from an ecological standpoint, but it's certainly better than the alternative, and as you said, has the advantage of being well-accepted among the farmers in the area. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash-and-burn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash-and-burn [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy