Since the last Podcaster, N2Africa was show-cased at the Joint Pan-African Grain Legume and World Cowpea Conference in Livingstone, February 28 – March 4. N2Africa was well represented; we funded 53 participants, presented 15 posters and 3 talks and led a special session on Grain legume nitrogen fixation and contributions to sustainable intensification. It was a great opportunity to get up to date on all of the great research going on around the world with a special emphasis on Africa. Also a real opportunity for networking and forging new collaborations with a wider community of researchers. Many thanks to all staff and partners who presented and chaired sessions. Immediately afterwards we had the N2Africa Advisory Committee and Annual Planning Meeting in Victoria Falls and then went on to a field trip in Zimbabwe, including many interactions with partners and farmer groups and a visit to the Soil Productivity Research Laboratory Rhizobial Inoculant production plant.
Our Podcaster this week opens with some reflections on the conference from Dr Rebbie Harawa of AGRA, and a report on the N2Africa Advisory Committee (of which Rebbie is a member) together with some of the most important outputs of the N2Africa Advisory Committee, our Annual Report and the field trip. We have articles on a visit with partners in Tanzania, the use of grain legumes for livestock in Ghana, nutrition studies in Ghana and our superb interactive data management system. We have announcements of new publications: (i) the practical manual "Working with Rhizobia" led by Professor John Howieson of Murdoch University to which N2Africa contributed. (ii) reports from a linked ESRC-DFID project which has been measuring the impact of N2Africa in DR Congo. This group is organizing a conference in Bukavu, DR Congo together with IITA in December 2016 on "Assessing the impact of agricultural extension and input subsidies in Eastern DRC". We also announce the African Association of Biological Nitrogen Fixation 17th Biennial Conference on 17-21 October 2016 which is being organized by Dr Flora Pule-Meulenberg in Gaborone, Botswana and the 12th European Nitrogen Fixation Conference, 25-28 August 2016, Budapest, Hungary.
This week we also launch a new video made to profile the "Soya-ni-Pesa" (Soya is Money) project, which is a partnership led by the Catholic Relief Services, and some of the challenges faced. We made this video last year together in southern Tanzania. You can view the video by clicking on this link.
We hope you enjoy reading this Podcaster and look forward to your contributions to the next edition which will focus on Sustainable Input Supply and Markets.
Ken Giller