<p>The art of coffee production under shade has been one of the most effective methods used by our ancestors in order to adapt the coffee trees to precarious conditions, where they would not otherwise produce profitably due to the conditions of elevation, light, water availability, percentage of organic matter, temperature and other climatic and geographic factors. The objective of this study was to explain in a consistent and clear way the interaction of different effects generated in the soil, atmosphere and the crop, as a result of the use of the shaded coffee technique (sombrío de café) in coffee plantations. This provides tools that are applicable to the Colombian coffee growing industry, which can produce an improvement in the use of this technique, based on the zoning of the productive unit. This will generate an increase in the life and productivity of the crop.</p>