The effects of crown pruning of Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn (karite) and Parkia biglobosa Gacq.) Benth. (nere) on above and belowground interactions with associated crops of Pennisetum glaucum (L.) (millet) and Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench (sorghum) were investigated as well as the use of the pruned material as mulch on soil fertility and millet production in an agroforestry parkland system in Burkina Faso. Three treatments of cr own pruning (total-pruning, half-pruning and n o-pruning) were applie d to karite and nere . The area under each tree was divided into four concentric tree influence zones before pruning the trees (Zon es A : up to 2 m fr om the tree trunk, B: up to half of the radius of the tree crown, C: up to the edge o f the tree crown and D: up to 2 m aw ay from the edge of the tree crown). Millet production under these zones and outside was assesse d over two years' cropping seasons and sor ghum over one cropping season. Crop production was ana lysed in relation to tree transpiration, light transmission, root distribution and soil fertility. Investigation on the u se of the prune d material as mulch involved assessm ent o f its d ecomposition and nutrient release patterns, its effects on soil properties and crop production and the existence of allelopathy in it. The results sh ow ed tha t tree crown pruning h ad significant effect on associa ted crop production. Total-pruned trees gave the highest crop p roduction due to the reductio n by crown pruning of the effects of la r ge tree crowns on PAR transmiss ion be lo w crowns and rates of transpira tion by trees. Root niche diffe rentia tion also occurred in which fine root len gth d ensity of trees was reduced and crop roo ts d ominated the uppe r soil layer due to crown pruning ;1nd ,1s ,1 conseque nce crop producti on o f up to e ight fold highe r was achie ved unde r total-pruned trees than under unprune d t rees. Soil was mo re fertile dL)Ser to the tree trunks th,111 outside tn.:e crow ns and the refore crop overall pe rformed be tt e r under Zone 13 than outs id~ tree c rc>wns. The h ighe r production of cn1p unde r Z1m<.: 13 th,in u11Lfor Znn<.: A, the znne clos<.:r to the tn.:c tn .mk, m,1y be due l o lower light intens it y and more i.nt cnsc com petitio n for w a te r a.nd nutrients bet ween trec.:?s ,ind crops u nder Zone A. Prw-led leaf li tter o f nere decomposed a11d re leased nutrients faste r than ka rite. H ow ever, the s low ra te of decomposition o f karite leaves was beneficial to crops perhaps in terms of p rotecting the soil agains t excessive heat, surface runoff and erosion and d ue to the achjevem ent of good synchron y between nutrient re lease from decomposing leaves o f karite arld crop nutrient demand . As a consequence o f these, mille t grain yie ld was increased b y 120% and to ta l d ry matter by 43% b y applying leaf Utte r o f karite as mulch. The results o f the laboratory a lle lopathy experiments were, however , contradictory to the field exp eriment. Leachate of karite s howed m ore d epressive effect on crop seed germination compared with ne re. It was argue d that this may be due to the fact that allelop a thlc effe cts unde r natural condi tions ar e m edia ted by en vironmental conditions and d ecomposers community and the r efore can show different results from the labora tory. Due to the results of the pruning and mulching experiments it was concluded that karite w as a m ore scitable tree species than nere for semi-arid agroforestry parkland systems. Since the p erio d of three years of the present study was too short to evalua te the effect of pruning on the overall productivity of the system it was finally recommended that the m onitoring is continue d over a longer p eriod to d etermine if complete recover y of fruit production or an optimum compromise between fruit arld crop p roduction could be achieved before conclusions are made whether pruning is beneficial or not.