| Introduction |
While many N2Africa staff in some countries, both in Africa and elsewhere, taking hard-earned vacations, others are in full swing of the cropping season. That’s the nature of such a broadly-based project as N2Africa – there are always exciting things happening. Fred Kanampiu and I have just returned from a visit to Tanzania with senior staff from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which we report on below. It’s always invigorating to discuss with N2Africa farmers and other stakeholders and understand their opportunities and how they are tackling difficulties they encounter. We’re very grateful to Freddy Baijukya, the N2Africa Coordinator for Tanzania and his staff for organising a full and diverse programme for us. ...
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| Foundation Officers Visit N2Africa Activities in northern Tanzania |
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We were delighted to share some of the excitement of N2Africa in action with Sara Boettiger, Deputy Director for Agricultural Development (Farmer Services and Systems), her Program Assistant, Mallory Robinson and our very own Senior Project Officer, Charlene McKoin. Our visit began with a courtesy call to Hon. Daudi Felix Ntibenda, the Regional Commissioner for Arusha. He assured us that the Tanzanian Government is an active partner in all our activities in rural areas and wished us a productive visit.
Photo: N2Africa farmers at Sanya Station Village, Hai District with the foundation officers
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| Peter Thorne taking over N2Africa Advisory Committee tasks from Alan Duncan |
Alan Duncan is stepping down from his role in N2Africa. We are grateful to Alan for his wise counsel in his role in the N2Africa Leadership Team over the past years. We welcome Peter Thorne who will take over his responsibilities for N2Africa at ILRI. ...
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| Introducing Ibironke Popoola |
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We have the pleasure of introducing and welcoming Ms. Ibironke Popoola, a Nutrition Research Associate in the Crop Utilisation Laboratory of IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria to N2Africa. Ms. Ibironke will be helping in N2Africa Nutrition activities under the guidance of Dr. Bussie B. Maziya-Dixon (IITA-Crop Utilization Scientist). She has been actively involved in the implementation of Nutrition and Consumer research activities in Nigeria, Zambia, Sierra Leone and DRCongo. Prior to her appointment at IITA, she worked as a Research Assistant in the Dutch Agricultural Economics Institute – Landbouw Economisch Instituut, where she backstopped Research Scientists in the execution of research projects in the Food and Agriculture domain.
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| The missing link |
What started as an agreeable brain storming session, has, over time become the ‘Bean Thinking’ campaign to inform smallholder farming household members about good practices in common bean farming.
A group of public and private sector entities has joined with an array of initiatives into an innovative Legume Alliance. ...
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| Leaving the mines for agriculture |
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N2Africa partnered with Women for Women in Kamituga (South Kivu, DRC). Together they offer the women from this region better opportunities in ‘business’ agriculture than they currently get from heavy work in the mines.
Photo: Site in Kamituga where BANRO SPRL (a private mining company) is in the exploration phase
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| Do Ghanaian farmers produce what they need to eat? |
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In my PhD research I assess whether the food requirements of rural households in Ghana match with the food they produce. Therefore I need to know how much and which food the household members need for a healthy diet, and how much and which food they produce on their farm. To see what food is needed for a healthy diet, together with a team of scientists, research assistants and students1 I collected dietary intake data from 400 children between 6 months and 2 years old in Karaga district in Northern Ghana. ... |
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| Improved access to tools and guidelines for data collection: Get that overview! |
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A new structure for the N2Africa intranet is online. Especially information on agronomy activities and data collection is now easier to find and access. ...
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| N2Africa joins multi-stakeholder partnership to support soyabean sector development in Tanzania |
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Participants to the launch of Soybean Innovation Platform with Dr Jackson Nkuba, representative of PS, in suit on the front row
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"Partnership will address challenges facing farmers in the production and marketing of soyabean in the country"
An innovation platform that brings together all the stakeholders along soyabean value chain from farmers to government and non-government organizations and the private sector to address the challenges facing soyabean sector development in Tanzania was launched on 13 May 2015 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. ...
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| BIOFIX and LEGUMEFiX inoculant products now registered in Tanzania |
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Inoculant products BIOFIX (from MEA Ltd - Kenya) and LEGUMEFiX (from Legume Technology Ltd - UK) are now registered in Tanzania as fertilizer supplements. This means that the two products can now be directly imported into Tanzania. Registration of these products follows efforts by the COMPRO-II project, which has collaborated with Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority (TFRA), N2Africa, and other stakeholders to develop registration guidelines for bio-fertilizers including rhizobium inoculants. ...
Photo: Packets of BIOFIX and LEGUMEFiX inoculants
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| News from Legume Technology |
Legume Technology has now achieved registration in Kenya and Tanzania. After several years of trials showing excellent results the LEGUMEFiX brand of rhizobium inoculants will now be available for commercial sales. It is hoped that LEGUMEFiX will be available to smallholders and commercial growers in both Tanzania and Kenya within a few months. Distributors are in the process of gathering market information and assessing the interest in our products so they can forecast sales and manage stock levels available for sale in both Tanzania and Kenya. ...
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| WeRATE R4D Platform Shines at the Agriculture Society of Kenya Kakamega Show |
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The Agriculture Society of Kenya (ASK) proved a great way to disseminate messages to farmers in the West Kenya Action Area shared by the N2Africa, Humidtropics and IFAD Cassava Projects. ...
Photo: Soyabean varieties were demonstrated to farmers with and without the N2Africa recommended technology package
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The Agriculture Society of Kenya (ASK) proved a great way to disseminate messages to farmers in the West Kenya Action Area shared by the N2Africa, Humidtropics and IFAD Cassava Projects. The Western Region Agriculture Technology Evaluation (WeRATE), an R4D Platform working closely with IITA, participated fully in this show, advancing its theme "Enhancing Technology in Agriculture and Industry for Food Security" through field demonstrations, sales of improved seeds and cuttings as well as other inputs, and exhibition of value-adding technologies. Numerous organizations from government, research, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector and others were also represented at this show running from 17 through 20 June 2015. ...
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| Watch out for “Predatory Open Access Journals”! |
The number of predatory journals is spiraling. A "predatory journal" is a fake journal that will publish just about anything written as long as you pay a fee. They have no proper peer-review or editorial procedures. Wikipedia provides a good description: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_open_access_publishing
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| 2016 PanAfrican & World Cowpea Conference Update |
The dates of the conference have been confirmed as 28 February - 4 March 2016. Further information can be found in the first announcement.
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| Report uploaded on the N2Africa website |
Joseph Mhango submitted his MSc thesis "Efficacy and competitiveness of indigenous Bradyrhizobia strains on soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) productivity in Malawi" at Egerton University. We uploaded it on our website.
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| Free online Summer course of the Future of Crop Production |
It is still possible to participate in the Wageningen University MOOC "Future Food Production: Crops" made available on edX. There is no fee and it is open to all who wish to join. Follow this link to register: https://www.edx.org/course/future-food-production-crops-wageningenx-gffcx. Subscription is possible until September 15th.
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| ADVANCE II Newsletter |
We received the "ADVANCE II Newsletter" June Edition. This quarterly newsletter informs you about progress, impact and successes of the ADVANCE Project. Also shared is news of how a female farmer is improving her farming operations thanks to project support, how FBOs are being strengthened, how mechanization services are being improved in Northern Ghana and many more..
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| Humidtropics Newsletter April-June 2015 |
Humidtropics sent us their latest newsletter with lots of interesting information.
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| ECOLEG: Ecosystemic Services Of Legumes In Agro-Ecosystems |
ECOLEG: is confirmed to take place in Agropolis Montpellier Campus La Gaillarde, between august 24th and 28th, as final meeting of the GPF fabatropimed, and as an international symposium on the topic.
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| Tropical Soybean Information Portal and Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) June Newsletter |
Dr. Peter Goldsmith sent us some information on the new Tropical Soybean Information Portal as well as their newsletter.
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