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Explore our blog featuring articles about farming and irrigation tips and tricks!
By High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal
Imagine an agriculture field. Most are planted with row upon row of tidy cash crops. Now imagine that same field with rows of trees between the rows of crops. This forested field concept is called alley cropping. Alley cropping helps famers diversify by growing long-term tree crops alongside short-term cash crops like wheat.
“For so long farmers have been taking trees off farmland,” said Josh Gamble, agroforestry researcher at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, “So the idea of putting trees back on is a little bit of a barrier.”
Alley cropping is a type of agroforestry, which is the practice of combining crops and trees into one farming system. The dual income from the land can bring greater economic security to farmers.
“The idea is that it’s potentially a multi-use system, with more diversity and more function,” said Gamble
Alley cropping is not only useful for diversifying a farm’s income. Fields with trees capture more carbon than fields without trees. Trees protect the crops planted alongside them by providing shade and wind protection.
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