This chapter presents a case study of an improved fallow using trees to replenish soil fertility - a natural resource management (NRM) technology, the development of which was led by the World Agroforestry Centre. The work synthesizes different studies that were carried out in Zambia to describe...

With the aim of improving soil productivity a shift in secondary natural vegetation was induced with cropped plants in a collaborative project utilizing improved fallows for maize production under a slash and burn system. A survey of 150 families, two experimentation peasant groups and three formal ...

Successful diffusion and adoption of new agroforestry practices depend not only upon the technical performance of those practices and their fit with farming systems, but also on the broader policy environment. Key policy factors relate to: tree germplasm supply, agricultural input supply, markets...

This paper refers to 4 technologies involving cover crops and integrated crop-livestock interventions developed in West and Central Africa under varying social, ecological and production systems, in which farmers and researchers, working in partnership to combine indigenous knowledge and...

This paper shows that, under certain conditions (i.e., land availability and unaffordable fertilizer), improved fallows are potentially gender-neutral, scale-neutral soil-fertility technologies adoptable by women as well as by men, and by the poor and food-insecure as well as the food secure. The...

This paper examines farmer assessment, use and adoption of agroforestry systems for soil fertility replenishment in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on three primary case studies: improved fallows in eastern Zambia; improved fallows in western Kenya; and biomass transfer (applying leaves as green...

Results are presented of field experiments during 1998-2003 in the Manupali River Watershed (Mindanao, Philippines) designed to evaluate tree-based (Eucalyptus grandis) and improved fallow (sunflower and Tithonia diversifolia) production systems with annual crops (tomato, maize, beans [Phaseolus]...

Nodulated legumes and actinorhizal trees are the two main groups of N₂-fixing trees. Details of some of the most important legume trees for agroforestry are given. These trees were: Acacia, Calliandra, Erythrina, Faidherbia, Flemingia, Gliricidia, Leucaena, Prosopis, Sesbania and Tephrosia. Species ...

This paper explains the economics of why farmers manage their fallow-based slash-and-burn agriculture by comparing the costs and benefits of traditional and improved fallowing practices and assessing how improved fallow adoption affects deforestation. The paper specifically analysed the impact of...

This paper discusses the mechanisms by which nutrients occur in deep layers which include downward leaching of mobile nutrients, biological breakdown of soil organic matter and chemical breakdown of minerals. Soil nutrients not accessible to annual crops can be extracted by perennials through two...