Agroforestry in the Sahel help store carbon and support food production, but land surface models struggle to capture their dynamics. We adapted the ORCHIDEE model to simulate Faidherbia albida, a tree that taps deep groundwater. This work highlights the need to integrate deep water uptake in land surface models for groundwater-dependent ecosystems, as it could enhance predictions, helping to sustain agroforestry in a changing climate.