Context or problem: Smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe face declining crop productivity due to drought, erratic rainfall, and soil degradation. This undermines food and nutrition security. Objective or research question: This study evaluated whether bundling Conservation Agriculture (CA) with drought-tolerant crops and legume rotations improves productivity, system energy, and stability in low-productivity environments. Methods: On-farm trials were conducted from 2018 to 2025 across four communities in Zimbabwe, comparing CA with conventional tillage practices (CP) in systems involving maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea, and groundnut. Linear mixed models, temporal yield analyses, and genotype-plus-genotype-by-environment interaction (GGE) analyses were used to quantify grain yield responses, stability, and system-level energy. Results: CA increased maize yields by 202-1104 kg ha-1 yr-1 after a three-year transition, with hybrids PAN53 and PGS63 outperforming other varieties. Cowpea out-yielded groundnut and contributed more to system energy (26-27 GJ ha-1 under CA vs. 19-21 GJ ha-1 under CP). Traditional grain crops (sorghum, pearl millet, and finger millet) showed substantial genotypic variation. Maize yields under CA followed a curvilinear trajectory with initial declines in years 1-3, followed by strong gains that exceeded CP by 10-15% by year 7. Yield responses to plant density indicated optima of around 55,000 plants ha-1 for maize and 90,000 plants ha-1 for cowpea. Overall, CA increased system energy yield by 3-10% and improved yield stability. Conclusion: These results from southern and northern Zimbabwe demonstrate that integrating CA with stress-tolerant hybrids and cowpea rotations can enhance productivity, stability, and energy efficiency in smallholder systems. For smallholder farmers, these results suggest that combining CA with drought-tolerant maize hybrids, cowpea rotations, and appropriate plant densities can provide a practical solution to improve productivity and system stability. However, because the analysis is based on site-specific on-farm trials and observed seasonal variability, the results should be interpreted within the environmental conditions represented in the study areas. Implications: Our results provide insights into the potential pathways to improve productivity and system performance in semi-arid smallholder farming systems in Zimbabwe.