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Some smallholder farmers in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) have failed to adopt all the three principles of conservation agriculture (CA) because of various reasons including lack of alternative weed management methods (soil tillage), crop-livestock interactions (crop residue mulch used as livestock feed) and poorly developed markets for other crops (diversified cropping system). Studies have shown that smallholder farmers incorporate one or two CA principles, not all three, at a time in their cropping systems. Our study sought to disaggregate the effects of the three CA principles on crop growth with or without mineral fertilizer in order to determine which principle or combination of principles resulted in highest yield increase in the short to medium term. The research was conducted over four cropping seasons at Hunyani Farm located in Zvimba district in north western Zimbabwe characterized by sub humid tropical …