Temperate alley cropping systems

Description

The implementation of modern agricultural practices has largely excluded trees from the rural landscape, causing negative environmental impacts. Alley cropping, an agroforestry practice where agricultural crops are grown simultaneously with long-term tree crops, helps mitigate negative environmental impacts and offers a promising land-use alternative to conventional farming for temperate regions. This chapter provides an overview of economic and ecological benefits, challenges and major considerations of implementing these practices within North America. The chapter focuses on a system performance evaluation of a pecan-cotton system in the southern United States and looks ahead to future research trends in this area.

Table of contents

• 1 Introduction
• 2 Potential of alley cropping
• 3 Design considerations
• 4 Functions/benefits of alley cropping
• 5 Competition for growth resources
• 6 Evaluating system performance: the case of the pecancotton alley cropping system
• 7 Future trends and conclusion
• 8 Where to look for further information
• 9 References