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Soil organic carbon has been reported to increase soil microbial activities in soils. However, very few studies have evaluated soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), aggregate protected carbon, and mineralizable carbon, SOC associated with sand, silt and clay and aggregate stability under fallow-maize rotation systems. The objectives of this study were to determine SMBC, aggregate protected carbon, and mineralizable carbon, SOC associated with sand, silt and clay and aggregate stability under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) in a fallow-maize rotation system. We hypothesized that improved fallow systems, which are fast growing leguminous trees grown during the fallow phase, had greater SMBC, aggregate protected carbon, SOC in the different soil fractions and aggregation when compared to natural fallow or continuous maize systems. Treatments studied were improved fallows of Acacia …