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Though improved fallows have been widely promoted as low-input technologies suitable for soil fertility replenishment in smallholder agriculture in southern Africa, their interaction with soil invertebrates has not been studied. In the present study we compared the population of soil macrofauna in maize grown in gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium), leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), Leucaena diversifolia, sesbania (Sesbania sesban) and acacia (Acacia anguistissima) and continuously cropped monoculture maize. The objectives of the study were to determine (1) the effect of the type and length of fallows on soil macrofauna communities and functional groups, and (2) the long-term effect of legume fallows on maize yield. The number of invertebrate orders per sampling unit was significantly influenced by the type of fallow but not by the length of fallow period. Maize grown in legume fallows had more numbers of …