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Alley cropping is an aspect of agroforestry being developed for small farmers in the tropics. It consists of establishing fast-growing leguminous shrubs or tree species in rows, then controlling the shading from the trees during cropping by pruning the branches which can be used as mulch or green manure to benefit the companion crops planted between the alleys. This paper attempts to assess the economic implications on labour utilization for the management of the leucaena hedgerows, on crop yields and the overall benefits from alley cropping with leucaena. The results show that although the management of leucaena trees increases labour requirements by about 50%, the system can sustain and increase maize yields by over 60%, reduce the use of nitrogenous fertilizers and give an attractive net income and marginal rate of return per unit cost. It gave a reasonable benefit-cost ratio of 1·23 to 1·32 and looks promising, especially for maize production in tropical areas.