Ameyaw to Test Alley Cropping Farming With USDA Grant

Lincoln, Neb. —Lord Ameyaw recently received a $682,335 Conservation Innovation Grant to study and test alley cropping, a farming method including rows of trees in agricultural fields.

The forester and assistant professor in the School of Natural Resources said his project includes comparing various designs of alley cropping and the benefits of each. He and Ann Powers, a forestry lecturer and co-investigator, plan to test alley-cropped fields for drought and wildfire resilience and look at policy and tax incentives that either promote or deter its use.

“The project is ambitious,” Ameyaw said. “That’s what we all thought when we were putting it together. It’s huge.”

The grant is the first major one he has secured and is the first grant Powers has been on. The two run the Regional and Community Forestry program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and will carry out the three-year project at the Horning State Farm near Plattsmouth.

The farm has had a 14-acre demonstration site for alley cropping since about 2006. At the site, Chinese chestnut, northern pecan and black walnut trees are planted in rows with about 20 feet between trees in each row. The distance between one row of nut trees to the next row of nut trees is about 40 feet planted with tall grass.