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Most legume-based soil fertility technologies often fail to make the desired impact on nutrient-depleted soils partly due to low N₂-fixation rates and poor biomass productivity. A study was conducted in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 rainfall seasons to evaluate biomass productivity and N₂-fixation of indigenous legumes on nutrient-depleted fields under low (450- 650 mm yr-1) to high (> 800 mm yr-1) rainfall areas of Zimbabwe. Legume species, mostly of Crotalaria, Indigofera and Tephrosia genera, were sown in mixtures on disturbed soil. Indigenous legume fallows (indifallows) produced 2-5 t biomass ha-1 under low and 5-15 t biomass ha-1 under high rainfall. They significantly (P<0.05) out-yielded natural fallows by 84% and a sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea) green manure fallow by 32% over a growth period of six months. Cumulatively, indifallows produced more biomass (∼29 t ha-1) than natural …