Alley Cropping: Balancing Forest and Agriculture

“Swidden” agriculture, or slash-and-burn farming, is a practice common among subsistence smallholders which destroys forests and releases over one billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere annually. British ecologist Mike Hands alley-cropping, proposes a practice in which Inga trees - fast-growing trees from the Amazon Basin that put nitrogen back into the soil - are planted in rows about four metres apart. They are then allowed to grow for a few years until they take over the land, stopping the growth of weeds. The technique allows farmers to reuse the same plots, reducing the need to burn more forest to free up new land for crops, as well as the use of chemical fertilisers. The tree restores nitrogen to the soil, revitalising damaged land and eventually increasing crop yields. Nitrogen-fixing trees like the Inga will “scarf up” nutrients deep down in the soil, said Dennis Garrity, director general of the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre. Read more