TY - CONF T1 - Promoting the fertilizer bush in agroforestry on-farm research: A participatory approach T2 - Paper presented at American Society of Agronomy Conference, October 21-26, 1990, San Antonio, Texas Y1 - 1990 A1 - Kristin Cashman KW - agroforestry KW - alley farming AB -

Alley farming is an ecologically stabilizing process designed for tropical farmers to increase and sustain crop production. Rows of nutrient-rich trees form 5 meter alleys. If farmers regularly use prunings from these trees as mulch for crops grown in the alleys, the trees function as "fertilizer bushes." Farmers can defer fallow on fragile soils, extend and diversify cropping, and increase yields. As an innovation bundle, alley cropping supplies useful by-products: animal fodder, crop staking material, firewood, and mulch for erosion control and moisture retention. Yet on-farm research demonstrates that if the technical aspects of alley cropping outpace essential human components, the practice becomes dysfunctional, and the benefits farmers derive are negligible. This paper examines what socio-cultural/economic and organizational components can make alley cropping an appealing and sustainable practice by tropical farmers. A framework was developed and tested in collaboration with 270 rural Nigerians to describe and measure the process where farmers become aware of alley cropping, adopt and modify or reject it, integrate and use the practice in their farming system and disseminate it to others, or discontinue the practice.

Interviews with 50 female and 97 male adopters were tape-recorded during fieldwork in 1988. Each alley farm of this 147 sample was visited. Nonadopters (123) were canvased to determine their understanding of, and feelings towards, alley farming. The projects' field personnel and scientists were also interviewed to further the development of the framework. (author)

JF - Paper presented at American Society of Agronomy Conference, October 21-26, 1990, San Antonio, Texas CY - San Antonio, TX U5 - 23 pp. JO - Promoting the fertilizer bush in agroforestry on-farm research ER - TY - CONF T1 - Seeing the forest for the trees T2 - Paper presented at Farming Systems Research Symposium: How Systems Work, October 18-21, 1987 Y1 - 1987 A1 - Kristin Cashman KW - Africa KW - agroforestry KW - alley farming KW - cassia KW - Cassia siamea KW - farming KW - farming systems research KW - fertilizer KW - FSR&D KW - grassroots organizations KW - IITA KW - ILCA KW - International Institute of Tropical Agriculture KW - International Livestock Center for Africa KW - legume KW - luecaena KW - Nigeria KW - OFR KW - on-farm research AB - A grassroots approach to implementing alley farming is described in this paper. The approach emphasizes the participation and cooperation of Nigerian farm households in farming systems research. Strategies were developed to present the critical concepts of alley farming in a culturally acceptable, sustainable, and self-perpetuating manner. Findings are based on three years of field work with the International Livestock Center of Africa and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. JF - Paper presented at Farming Systems Research Symposium: How Systems Work, October 18-21, 1987 CY - University of Arkansas U5 - 6 pp. ER -