Does pollarding trees improve the crop yield in a mature alley‐cropping agroforestry system?

In agroforestry systems, the canopy of maturing trees progressively reduces the radiation available for the crop. Tree management practices such as pollarding can be used to restore the crop light availability. We monitored durum wheat, barley and pea yields during three consecutive years in an alley‐cropping agroforestry system with hybrid walnut trees in Southern France. Trees have been pruned regularly to 4 m since planting (in 1995), and a...