ALLEY CROPPING

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Alley cropping is an agroforestry business in the food crops are grown in the alleys formed by hedge rows of trees or shrubs

The hedge rows are cut back at planting and kept prunned during cropping to prevent shading and to reduce competition with food crops
Where there are no crops, the hedge rows are allowed to grow freely to cover the land
Alley cropping retains the basic features of bush fallow

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It can easily be adopted by resource poor farmers
Alley cropping is designed to enhance food production in many parts of the tropics
This is as a result of increasing population coupled with increasing land pressure which has resulted in shortening of fallow periods
Heavy pressure on the available land for crop production is capable of causing soil degradation,
rapid decline in crop yield
and invasion of the land by noxious weeds
Since farmers in developing countries especially in the tropics are poor and for them to afford costly inputs like fertilizer it is necessary to develop a low input soil management technology that can sustain crop production
Alley cropping has the following benefits the trees and shrubs in the alley system
It provides green manure or mulch for companion crops in this way plants nutrients are recycled from deeper soil layers
The trees in alley cropping provide pruning which are applied as mulch to enhance soil fertility and other benefits of mulching
Benefits of mulching
Reduces runoff
Preserves soil moisture through evaporation
Protects the root zone from high temperature
Reduces weed growth
Volatilization i.e escape of soil nutrients into the atmosphere

Examples of trees and shrubs species in alley cropping are Leucaena leucocephala, Gliricida sepium, Aviva bacterii, Cajanus cajan
And non leguminous specie used in alley cropping include Gmelina arborca, Alchormea cordiflora e.t.c

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Benefits of alley cropping

Production of large biomass which maybe fed to livestock animals
Provide staking for agricultural crops
Weed control
Supression of noxious weed
Nutrients recycling
Provides fodder for feeding of livestock animals
Pruning may serve as source of firewood
Protects soil from erosion
Pruning when added to soil acts as organic manure which enhances soil N content without increasing soil acidity unlike N fertilizer
Improvement of the soil properties by periodic addition of pruning which helps to maintain high soil nutrient and organic matter

Disadvantages of alley cropping

There is reduction in land available for crop production
There is high labour of demand
Mechanization maybe difficult
There maybe competition between planted crops and trees
During dry season the hedge rows may serve as harbourers for pest due to condusive environment

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Thanks
Elizabethlizzy