Pigeon pea is cultivated by most smallholder crop–livestock farmers mainly as a border crop. It is quite often sparsely
intercroppedincereal-basedcroppingsystemsinthesubhumidzoneofGhana.Managementofpigeonpeaanditsbiomassisa
promising means of improving many abandoned arable fields but has not been consciously undertaken. The objective of this
trial was to explore the use of pigeon pea and the management of its pruned biomass as part of an improved fallow for crop–
livestock farming. Three pigeon-pea management options and a natural fallow (two-year fallow period) were compared in
terms of maize grain yield and changes in soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and cation exchange capacity. Pigeon pea grain11
yield ranged between 615 and 678kgha and 527 and 573kgha in the first and second year of fallow, respectively. In the1
first year after fallow, maize grain yield ranged between 043 and 239tha and was significantly influenced by the fallow
system.Therewasamarkeddecreaseinmaizegrainonthepigeonpeafallowplotsinthesecondyear,rangingbetween50and
386percent in Kumayili and between 426 and 176percent in Tingoli. After the two-year fallow period, increase of soil
organic carbon on the pigeon pea fallow plot compared with the natural fallow plot was 305percent, and there was an
improvement of total nitrogen (485percent) and CEC (178percent). Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.