We're here in Malawi. This you could call field trip for a few staff from our Burundi, Tanzania  and US offices to learn about improved  fallows. What is an improved  fallow? This photo below illustrates pretty well. On the right you can see some trees or maybe tall shrubs called  Tephrosia which are 2.5 years old and  have grown  to  a height of about 3 metres. The are legumes so  they add nitrogen to the soil as well as organic matter. All  this means that after a time, the soil is much richer,  and then  the cut the plants down and plant corn as they have done on the left (you can see the corn stalks on the soil surface. Yields on these fields after an improved fallow are 2.4 to 2.8 metric tonnes per hectare, which is at least twice the average yield using the  traditional system. Improved  fallow systems are relatively new, maybe they have been around for 15 years or so, but Malawi is one place where they have had particular success with promoting these systems with farmers. So we're here, not just to learn about the technical aspects, but also to learn about how they have persuaded farmers to adopt these systems--not always an easy task as I think I've mentioned in the past. We're doing this for the next 3 days, so if I get internet again you  can expect more discussion  of the same. This is only one of a variety of great techniques that can help farmer  increase  yield and income  with little expense.