This issue of the Podcaster reports on results from the research work stream. We have some interesting findings showing really stunning responses to inoculation and phosphorus in some countries with soyabean, although such responses are not found everywhere. The baseline studies are now available from most countries and are providing some interesting insights into gender and legume use. We include reports from MSc students who have conducted their research thesis work within the N2Africa project. We hope you will enjoy reading some of these interesting reports - and look forward to receiving your contributions for forthcoming issues!

The N2Africa acknowledges the importance of women in agricultural production, household food security and income. The project recognizes that in aiming to ensure long-term sustainable impact it is of crucial importance to address explicitly the needs of women farmers, processors and marketers and to develop specific strategies for meaningful inclusion of women in project activities to ensure women benefit from the project. The project team has therefore embraced the target of at least 50% women involvement in all farmer-related activities of the project, as formulated in the project proposal. Moreover, the NGO WOCAN has recently provided a report on improving the gender responsiveness in the N2Africa project.

In this MSc research by Greta van den Brand, legume technology niches were identified through detailed system characterization, with the use of a farm typology to deal with the large diversity in smallholder farms. The results of farm characterizations, covering diverse farm types in Mchinji and Salima district in central Malawi, were used to gain insights in the possibilities of legumes to improve nutrition, livelihoods and soil fertility.

The Soya team from TechnoServe sent us their latest newsletter in Portugese.