At the beginning of June, a group of about 40 partners from diverse backgrounds met in Entebbe, Uganda to shape the proposal for N2Africa Phase II. We had strong participation from national research organisations, the private sector, local and international NGOs and other international partners. All N2Africa countries were represented. Dr Peter Ebanyat, N2Africa Coordinator Uganda and Makerere University hosted the workshop together with the local IITA office. ...

Photo: Hill sides covered with common beans in northern Tanzania

Pulses are important food and cash crops for farmers and rural households in Ethiopia. Pulses are the second most important element in the national diet, providing the principal protein source and important dietary supplement to cereal consumption. Pulses recently have regained significance as export commodities. Despite the economic and food security importance of these crops, actual smallholder farm yields are far below the potential production, e.g. 1.3 t/ha for common bean and 1.5 t/ha for chickpea and faba bean. Targeting technologies for legume production in farming systems, N2Africa is an important project for Ethiopia. ...

Photo: Workshop participants actively attending demonstrations on inoculation of seeds

After two seasons of implementing N2Africa activities in Malawi, the team changed the dissemination approach for sustainability purposes. Previously, the team already worked with the PREA (Participatory Research and Extension Approach) in which N2Africa staff trained Lead/Master Farmers who in turn trained satellite farmers in legume technologies. Now, the team has modified the PREA, empowering Lead Farmers to train School teachers and students in legume technologies. ...

Photo: The Head teacher, Anthony Jere, standing next to the Lead Farmer, Agnes Nyoka (in blue clothes)

Ethiopia is the leading chickpea producer in Africa with a share of 39% of the total production in 2011. To investigate how chickpea productivity can be increased, a study was conducted to evaluate the response of chickpea to inoculants, P fertilizer and their combined application on farmers’ fields in Wolaita area in southern Ethiopia. ...

Photo: Ibsa in one of the experimental fields

Picture 3/4. Authentication of rhizobial isolates on homologous host (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Hawassa University (HwU) has been conducting research on rhizobium-legume symbiosis for more than a decade in collaboration with researchers in universities in the Northern Hemisphere (Norway, Finland, Germany, Canada). Along this path, we have genetically and symbiotically characterized hundreds of rhizobial strains isolated from soils in Ethiopia, identified several new genospecies and named the unique ones (International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (2013) 63, 1746-1753, and google "rhizobia and southern and Ethiopia" for more information).

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The Catholic Relief Services (CRS), through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) -funded Soya ni Pesa Project is supporting small holder farmers in Southern highlands (Ruvuma and Njombe regions) of Tanzania to grow soyabean. ...

Photo: Participants of CRS-consultative meeting held in Dar es Salaam to deliberate on ways to improve the availability of soyabean seeds in Tanzania

As part of the investment in rhizobiology research and inoculant production in the different N2Africa countries, N2Africa recently facilitated the replacement of a 33 year old autoclave at the government inoculant factory in Marondera, Zimbabwe. ...

Photo: Front side: Zvomuya Munyaradzi, manager production facility