Biological and social feasibility of Sesbania fallow practice in small holder agricultural farms in developing countries: A Zambian case study

Many small holder farmers in developing countries face problems of declinin g soil fertility and crop yields and insufficient money to buy expensive in organic fertilizers. The Sesbania fallow system, an agroforestry technology . seems to hold a key to these problems. Based on field studies in eastern Zambia, this paper reports that fallow system has the potential to improve and sustain soil productivity in the small holder farms. However, the paper also reports that the ability for subsistence farmers to adopt the Sesbani a fallow system is affected by gender differences in resource allocation to productive resources and institutional, cultural, and social structural se ttings in which farmers exist and make decisions.