The experiences from East and Southern Africa presented in this paper indicate that for smallholder farmers in savannah agro-ecosystems, conservation farming primarily constitutes a water harvesting strategy. It is thus a non-inversion tillage strategy for in situ moisture conservation, rather than one solely aimed at minimum tillage with mulch cover. Challenges for the future adoption of conservation farming in sub-Saharan Africa include how to improve farmer awareness of conservation farming benefits, and how to efficiently incorporate green manure/cover crops and manage weeds.