Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Agricultural and Resource Economics

Major Professor

Margarita M Velandia

Committee Members

Carlos Jose Omar Trejo-Pech, Karen Lewis DeLong, Le Chen

Abstract

Alley cropping, which is a type of intercropping system, involves the planting of trees or shrubs alongside vegetable crops within the same production system. Alley cropping has potential benefits, including crop diversification, enhanced productivity of annual crops, reduced soil erosion, improved pollinators and wildlife habitat, decreased incidence of pests and diseases, carbon sequestration, and reduced nitrogen leaching. Despite these potential benefits, the adoption of alley cropping worldwide remains low. Consistent with this trend, according to the 2022 Ag Census of Agriculture, in Tennessee, only about 2% of the farms have used agroforestry practices, including alley cropping. This study evaluated the factors correlated with farmers’ willingness to adopt alley cropping using data from a survey of Tennessee fruit and vegetable farmers and probit regressions. Regressions results suggest that risk preference, farm income, farm size, heat stress, the use of cover crops, and familiarity with alley cropping are factors significantly correlated with a survey respondents’ willingness to adopt alley cropping. Findings also suggest that the type of trees or shrubs incorporated in the alley cropping systems could impact farmers’ willingness to adopt this production system. The monetary compensation presented to survey respondents as a grower incentive to adopt this system was not significantly correlated with survey respondents’ willingness to adopt alley cropping. These results might be useful for policymakers in designing payment or cost-share programs that properly compensate farmers for expenses and potential losses when transitioning to alley cropping, as well as for the potential environmental benefits they could provide when adopting this production system. These results might also help Extension professionals better design educational programs aiming to inform and educate fruit and vegetable farmers about alley cropping.

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