scholarly journals Alley Farming in Thailand

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 2523-2540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Adebola Ogunlana ◽  
Athapol Noomhorm ◽  
Teerapol Silakul
Keyword(s):  
Alley Farming

Yoruba Rural Women and Alley Farming

2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Ogunlana
Keyword(s):  
Rural Women ◽  
Alley Farming

MANAGING NATURAL PASTURE FOR SMALL RUMINANTS: THE CASE OF ALLEY FARMING IN IKWUANO AREA OF ABIA STATE

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 120-124
Author(s):  
O. O. Ekumankama
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Shifting Cultivation ◽  
Small Ruminants ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Animal Production ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Alley Farming ◽  
Natural Pasture ◽  
Small Holders ◽  
The Right

Natural pasture for small ruminants must be sustained, enhanced, and where it has been diminished or destroy, restored, if animal production must contribute meaningfully to national food security. In Eastern Nigeria, farming system, such as bush fallow, are generally based on shifting cultivation. Unfortunately, agricultural lands are relatively scarce, thereby resulting to shortened fallow periods and thus, widespread diminishing and destruction of natural pasture. The urgency of managing deficient and scarce natural pasture in this environment is widely recognized. Not only is this essential for small ruminants’ feeding, but a dynamic animal sector is a key to achieving food security. The paper argues therefore, that alley farming is the right approach to managing deficient and scarce natural pasture, since it is the most promising alternative to traditional slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State was used as the study area. The results show that there is a pressing need for alley farming promotion. Small holders’ access to this technology would aid in revolutionizing animal production in Nigeria. This paper advocates for policies that will incorporate alley farming into production recommendations transferred to small farmers.

Water use, competition, and crop production in low rainfall, alley farming systems of south-eastern Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Unkovich ◽  
Kerrin Blott ◽  
Alex Knight ◽  
Ivan Mock ◽  
Abdur Rab ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Alley Farming ◽  
Annual Crop ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Annual Crops ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Perennial Shrubs

Annual crops were grown in alleys between belts of perennial shrubs or trees over 3–4 years at 3 sites across low rainfall (<450 mm) south-eastern Australia. At the two lower rainfall sites (Pallamana and Walpeup), crop grain yields within 2–5 m of shrub belts declined significantly with time, with a reduction equivalent to 45% over 9 m in the final year of cropping. At the third, wetter site (Bridgewater), the reduction in crop grain yields adjacent to tree belts was not significant until the final year of the study (12% over 11 m) when the tree growth rates had increased. The reductions in crop yield were associated with increased competition for water between the shrub or tree belts and the crops once the soil profile immediately below the perennials had dried. At all 3 sites during the establishment year, estimates of water use under the woody perennials were less than under annual crops, but after this, trends in estimates of water use of alley farming systems varied between sites. At Pallamana the perennial shrubs used a large amount of stored soil water in the second summer after establishment, and subsequently were predominantly dependent on rainfall plus what they could scavenge from beneath the adjacent crop. After the establishment year at the Walpeup site, water use under the perennial shrubs was initially 67 mm greater than under the annual crop, declining to be only 24 mm greater in the final year. Under the trees at Bridgewater, water use consistently increased to be 243 mm greater than under the adjacent annual crop by the final year. Although the shrub belts used more water than adjacent crop systems at Walpeup and Pallamana, this was mostly due to the use of stored soil water, and since the belts occupied only 7–18% of the land area, increases in total water use of these alley farming systems compared with conventional crop monocultures were quite small, and in terms of the extent of recharge control this was less than the area of crop yield loss. At the wetter, Bridgewater site, alley farming appeared to be using an increasing amount of water compared with conventional annual cropping systems. Overall, the data support previous work that indicates that in lower rainfall environments (<350 mm), alley farming is likely to be dogged by competition for water between crops and perennials.

Profitability of Alley Farming with and without Fallow in Southwest Nigeria

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Jabbar ◽  
A. Larbi ◽  
L. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Alley Cropping ◽  
Small Ruminants ◽  
Capital Budgeting ◽  
Humid Zone ◽  
Alley Farming ◽  
Mining Soil ◽  
Southwest Nigeria ◽  
Project Cycle ◽  
On Farm

SUMMARYThe profitabilities of three land use systems in the humid zone of southwest Nigeria are compared using a capital budgeting procedure combining on-station and on-farm experimental data. The systems are: non-alley farming with fallow; alley farming with fallow; and continuous alley farming. The results indicate that: continuous alley cropping is more profitable than non-alley or alley cropping with fallow; short fallowing in alley cropping reduces the rate of mining soil fertility and thus helps preserve future productivity; alley farming with small ruminants enhances the profitability of alley systems and increases their advantage over the non-alley system; and alley systems remain profitable even when terminal clearing costs are internalized in the current project cycle.

scholarly journals The effect of changes in rainfall on the response of the water table to a major alley farming experiment

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 4563-4588
Author(s):  
S. L. Noorduijn ◽  
K. R. J. Smettem ◽  
R. Vogwill ◽  
A. Ghadouani
Keyword(s):  
Water Table ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Specific Yield ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Climate Trend ◽  
Alley Farming ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
The Mean

Abstract. Widespread clearing of native vegetation in Southwest Western Australia has led to land degradation associated with rising groundwater, secondary salinisation and waterlogging. Land degradation can be controlled by re-establishing native deep rooted perennial vegetation across parts of the landscape. Alley farming is an agroforestry practice where multiple perennial tree belts are planted in alternation with traditional agricultural crops. To identify the best configuration (belt width verses alley width) for controlling rising groundwater levels and providing viable economic returns, a large scale experiment was established in 1995. The experiment contains seven different alley farming designs, each with transects of piezometers running across tree belts into adjacent alleys to monitor changes in the groundwater level. Two control piezometers were also installed in an adjacent paddock. At the site groundwater is shallow (<3 m) and of poor quality (pH 3–5, Ec 2.1–45.9 mS cm−1) and so root water uptake from the saturated zone is limited. Simple hydrograph analysis did not identify any treatment effects on the water table response. Subsequent statistical analysis revealed that 20–30% of the variability in the water table data over the 12 year period was attributable to the alley farming experiment. It was hypothesized that a climate trend (reducing annual rainfall over time) may be obscuring the effect of the experiment. To further investigate the effect of the experiment on groundwater response, further hydrograph analysis was conducted to compare the trends in the control piezometers in relation to those located within the belts. A difference of 0.9 m was observed between the mean groundwater levels in the control piezometers and the mean levels in the perennial belt piezometers. For a mean specific yield of 0.03 m3 m−3 this equates to a small additional water use of 27 mm yr−1 by the perennial agroforestry system. It is concluded that declining annual rainfall is the principal control on hydrograph response at the site. Perennial biomass development and perennial root development (both laterally and vertically) exert only a small influence on water table depth. The implications of this study indicate that alley farming has a limited ability to control a rising water table in low lying areas with a shallow saline water table.

Use of tree and shrub belts to control leakage in three dryland cropping environments

2002 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 571 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Knight ◽  
K. Blott ◽  
M. Portelli ◽  
C. Hignett
Keyword(s):  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Soil Water Storage ◽  
Water Storage Capacity ◽  
Alley Farming ◽  
Episodic Event ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Recharge Rates ◽  
Deep Profile

The water extraction of deep-rooted perennial trees and shrub belts integrated with annual cropping/grazing systems was studied at 3 sites in the 300–450 mm rainfall zone of the Murray–Darling Basin of south-eastern Australia. Within 4 years of planting alley farming systems on cropland, the soil directly below and near the belts had dried the deep profile. Between 82 and 261 mm of extra soil water storage capacity was created in the 2.5 to 5.5–6 m profile. At Palamana (the only site monitored to greater depth), living roots were found 16 m below the surface. The cumulative water content of the soil to 12 m under the belts was 600 mm less than of soil cores extracted from nearby cropland. This water storage difference created under the belts is greater than the largest episodic event likely in this region and it is therefore unlikely that leakage will occur directly under or within a few metres of the belts. The early growth of the belts was rapid and the leaf area of the belts far exceeded that of remnant mallee eucalypt vegetation. The belts used water that had accumulated deep in the profile below the annual cropping systems they replaced. However, the belts only used water from below or within a few metres from the edge with the adjacent cropland. As suggested by RJ Harper et al. (2000), a much greater amount of potential recharge could be controlled if deep-rooted perennials were planted more closely across the landscape (compared with widely spaced belts). However, although the belts may be beneficial for the catchment water balance, they would be commercially unacceptable to farmers. In practice, farmers put the belts usually no less than 50–70 m apart so that less cropland is displaced and there is less belt/crop competition. In such cases alley farming only controls a small percentage of the total leakage, similar to the amount of crop yield lost by displacement and competition. It would be better to use a full coverage of perennials on soils where annual systems are the leakiest, rather than belts across all of the landscape, some of which may not be very leaky and could be highly profitable for annual cropping. Leakage could be controlled under cropland in a few years by growing easy to establish perennial species to retrieve moisture deep in the profile. At Pallamana the belts utilised 600 mm of accumulated leakage from deep in the profile in less than 4 years. Based on the average annual recharge rates under annual cropping (11–35 mm) the land could be cropped again for between 17 and 55 years before that leakage accumulated again.

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