The yield of crops in the low rainfall areas of eastern Kenya has been shown to vary within each season according to the crops grown in preceding seasons. This phenomenon of crop sequence was associated more especially with the amount of soil nitrates remaining at all depths in the soil than with the amount of water that may be left. The quantity of nitrates left by a crop was generally related to its vegetative bulk, its rooting habit and duration on the ground, and increased as the crops were ranked in the order: local maize, short-term maize, silage maize, beans and fallow. The beneficial effect of a bean crop or a fallow was reflected in a third crop when the intermediate crop had a low nitrogen requirement.

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