Our N2Africa Country Coordinator for Malawi, Lloyd Phiphira, introduced me to Fredrick Kawalewale of Agro-Input Suppliers Limited (AISL). This company supplies seed and inoculants to smallholders. Fredrick has been working with N2Africa related to input supply since we began in Malawi in 2010. Given the obvious benefits of rhizobium inoculant with soyabean and the lack of inoculant supply he saw a business opportunity and was prepared to take the risk to set up a company to produce and sell inoculants. ...

Photo: Fredrick proudly holding a sachet of Nitrofix

The N2Africa Annual Planning Meeting, held in Mbale from February 25^th to March 3^rd, focused on exchanging learnings and experiences throughout all countries in N2Africa over the past year, and gave the opportunity to tailor the planning for the remaining years in the project. For the Tier 1 countries that is only 9 months from the meeting onward and for the Core countries there are still 2 years to go. ...

Photo: Interactions during the planning sessions

• Capacity strengthening to sustain delivery; ...
• Entry step for adoption of technologies; ...
• Last mile delivery of inputs; ...
• Demonstrated output markets opportunities; ...
• Entry point to reduce drudgery; ...
• Quality control for risk-reduction; ...
• Harvest of agronomic research evidence; ...
• Partnerships as springboard for rapid achievements; ...
• Systematic steering and timely learning loops. ...

Sessions countries presenting their 2016 results

On 1^st March 2017, almost 80 workshop participants attended a field learning visit for the N2Africa and TAMASA projects. The learning visit aimed to provide the participants the opportunity of learning about the project implementation progress and through reflections, establish personal and collective learning for better implementation. Moreover, having both projects participants go together on the learning visit, allowed cross learning.

Photo: Impression of the visit to Koena Cooperative society, Bukedea District

Grain legume production in northern Ghana is characterized with low yields due to declining soil fertility, inadequate use of farm inputs and lack of good quality inputs including certified seeds, phosphorus fertilizers and rhizobium inoculants.

A contribution on partnerships and a success story.

Figure: Diagrammatic representation of input distribution and marketing of soyabean model

Soyabean has become an important crop in northern Ghana over the past decade, where it is grown mainly by smallholder farmers. It is an important source of edible oil and source of high quality protein for both human and livestock. The residues after extracting the oil is an excellent source of high quality protein for the poultry, pig and the fish industries where it is in high demand. ...

Photo: Bags of unsold soyabean grains in a farmer’s store room in Yendi, Ghana

N2Africa-Ethiopia has successfully conducted its Fourth Annual Partners’ Review and Planning Workshop during 16-17 March 2017 at ILRI Addis Ababa Campus. The Workshop has provided a National Learning and Experience sharing Platform for N2Africa Ethiopia partners from the four N2Africa target regions; Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz, Oromia and SNNPR. The workshop was conducted under the theme “Moving forward the legume technology and value chain for sustainable development”. ...

Photo: “Bus Stop” poster presentations from Jimma by Beza Erko

Common bean is an important crop in Ethiopia and Tanzania but the national average yield is small (respectively 0.9, and 0.8 ton ha^-1; source FAO), indicating that large opportunities exists for intensification of common bean production systems. Assessment of yield potential and yield gaps could help to provide insight in opportunities to increase productivity of common bean.

Figure: Relative yields (actual yield/water limited potential yield*100) of common bean in different regions in Ethiopia. Red indicates low relative yield, and green a high relative yield.

As we enter the final year of N2Africa Phase 2 activities, the outreach team in west Kenya shifts strategically from promotion of BNF technologies at the grassroots level to working more closely with the agribusinesses that produce and market them. This move reinforces the commercial momentum in the delivery of BNF products, particularly inoculants, blended fertilizers and certified legume seed, beyond the project’s lifetime. Toward this end, ...

Photo: Participants at the launch of the One Stop Shop Operation Mechanism (OSSOM) in west Kenya, March 2017

On behalf of N2Africa Theresa Ampadu-Boakye and Ken Giller contributed to the Virtual Symposium “Nitrogen: At the Nexus Between Food Security and Sustainability”. About 100 participants worldwide joined.

Ken Giller also presented N2Africa in a WURtalk at Wageningen University & Research for 100 interested people. His lecture, under the subject Nature's Nitrogen, was entitled N2Africa - When technology escapes the laboratory. This lecture will be available on the internet soon.