| Introduction |
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Welcome to the last Podcaster of 2015. While this is a busy time for everyone, it is also a time to take some rest, to reflect on the past year and to make plans for the coming year. For N2Africa, the coming year is particularly important as the United Nations have launched the 2016 International Year of Pulses – celebrating the benefits of legumes.
For N2Africa the most important event will be the Pan-African Grain Legume and World Cowpea Conference to be held in Livingstone, Zambia from 28th February to the 4th of March 2016. ...
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| N2Africa Learning loops 2.0. – faster data flows with tablets |
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This year, N2Africa has invested in improving the flow of research data from field to data analysis. In all core countries, project staff and implementing partners received hands-on training on the use of electronic data collection forms. The new tools have been received with much enthusiasm and most data collection is now done using tablet devices. This has allowed data from the different field trials to be collected, processed and compiled much more quickly than was possible using paper forms. ...
Photo: Field training on the use of tablets in Nigeria
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| Borno’s women increasingly benefit from legume production. |
| In 2015 all partners and households engaged in N2Africa activities paid deliberate attention to address gender inequity in Borno State, Nigeria. Training of women on processing and utilization of soyabean was thought to be a important way to do this. The objectives of the training were to sensitize the women on the nutritional value of soyabean, build their capacity on soyabean processing and utilization into various products, empower the women economically through soyabean processing at micro level for income generation and to create awareness on the effect of nutrition on infant and young child as well as on infections and diseases. The training events attracted 660 women. ... |
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| N2Africa publication: Understanding variability in soybean yield and response to P-fertilizer and rhizobium inoculants on farmers’ fields in northern Nigeria |
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In N2Africa we are reaching thousands of farmers in each country over the course of the project. Through collection of data among these farmers, we can get an impression of how well the legume technologies that we offer work in different areas, on different types of soils and for different types of farmers. With data from dissemination trials of farmers in Nigeria in phase I, collected by extension officers and dissemination partners (Sasakawa Global 2000, KADP, KNARDA, Federal University of Technology, Minna), we evaluated the results of widespread testing of promiscuous soyabean varieties in northern Nigeria. ...
Figure: Cumulative probability of estimated absolute response (kg ha-1) of P and/or I compared with control
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| Publication on shelf-life of inoculants in the African Crop Science Journal |
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Isaac Balume was Masters student under N2Africa and conducted his study at the University of Nairobi from 2011 to 2013. He was based at the MIRCEN Laboratory University of Nairobi where he did research on quality control of inoculant used on bean and soybean in Eastern and Central Africa. This resulted in a research paper on ‟Shelf-life of legume inoculants in different carrier materials available in East Africaˮ that recently was published on line.
Photo: Drop plate method for quality control of inoculant
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| N2Africa in the news |
In September 2015 an expert group gathered in Oxford to discuss the elemental problems of the nitrogen crisis The John Innes Centre’s Allan Downie reports on problems and progress in his blog post, referring to N2Africa (a.o.).
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| Reports and other output uploaded on the N2Africa website |
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| Related newsletters |
We received:
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| Announcements |
Courses and meetings:
CDI course Making agriculture work for food and nutrition security 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 07-18
XXVII Latin-American Rhizobiology Meeting (XXVII RELAR) 2016, Londrina, Brazil, June 06-09
FSD Course 2016, Montpellier, France, July 12-16
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