The environmental and economic feasibility of alternative crops in arid areas: considering mesquite in Baja California, Mexico

This paper considers the needs for alternatives to usual agricultural pract ices in environmentally degraded areas, particularly when ecological condit ions may not naturally support agriculture, e.g. in arid environments. Grow ing demand for food and increasing pressures on natural resources call for new approaches to land use that integrate economic and environmental consid erations, particularly in less developed nations. This paper conducts cost- benefit analysis of the investment in cultivated mesquite plantations for t he purposes of both pod products and lumber. Under all scenarios, investmen t in mesquite yields positive returns, but highest returns are obtained whe n trees cultivated for pods and lumber are intercropped rather than either being produced in isolation. (C) 2001 Academic Press.