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.
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”.
At the beginning of March we held the N2Africa annual planning meeting in Mbale, Uganda together with our Advisory Committee. The meeting was held concurrently with the TAMASA (Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale in Africa) project. Participants from both projects were divided among four groups of about 20 people for “learning journeys” in the field. This gave a great opportunity for joint learning about the opportunities and constraints of taking technologies. In this Podcaster we share reports on the workshop and the learning journeys.
On 1st 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.
Feeding a Hungry Planet: Agriculture, Nutrition and Sustainability
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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. |
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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. |
Capacity strengthening to sustain delivery: In 2016, a total of 24,172 persons were trained, with a female participation of 47%. In total, 32,717 persons were trained up to 2016. Training topics cut across the whole legume value chain (e.g. execution of dissemination trials, postharvest practices, data collection using tablets, seed production, handling and application of inoculants, herbicides, market standards, gross margin calculations, business plan development, marketing and legume value addition).
The N2Africa Annual Planning Meeting, held in Mbale from February 25th to March 3rd, 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.
Leveraging resources through partnerships: Streng-thening existing partnerships (e.g. in the areas of partner relationships, modes of delivery and models of input/output markets) will ensure sustained delivery. Up to 2016, $122.42 million is leveraged on by N2Africa. This strategy will be pursued in the coming years to achieve impact at scale.