Voandzeia subterranea and Cajanus cajan are important pulse crops in tropical and subtropical Africa and their drought hardiness and ability to utilize poor soils are inter alia reasons for this popularity. Both species hold considerable promise as crops in South Africa. The results of a pot trial and a field trial in which the responses of these two species to lime, phosphorus and potassium applications were compared with those of Vigna unguiculata, V. radiata and Arachis hypogaea are re ported. The generally held belief that C. cajan is able to produce well with a minimum of fertilizer was confirmed in this investigation, particularly in the field trial where no yield responses to applications of lime, phosphorus and potassium could be measured on a rather poor soil. V. subterranea, on the other hand, responded better, particularly to lime application. Contrary to what is generally claimed in the literature, there was no indication that V. subterranea is able to produce better than the common ground nut (A. hypogaea) at low levels of soil fertility. In fact, it has to be concluded from the results that this species is not as tolerant to acid soils as the common groundnut.

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