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The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) initiated in 1987 the Southern Africa Regional Agroforestry Programme in partnership with the national research systems in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania to address the problems of low soil fertility and consequent low crop and livestock production, low cash income, and shortages of fuelwood and timber that are common to most rural households in the region. This paper synthesizes agroforestry research and development during the 1990s from a regional perspective and emphasizes scaling-up of promising technologies. The problem of nutrient-depletion can be overcome using nitrogen-fixing and fast growing tree/shrub species, such as Sesbania sesban, Tephrosia vogelii and Gliricidia sepium, as short-duration planted fallows in rotation with crops. Intercropping of food crops with coppicing trees, annual relay intercropping and …