Introduction
The last annual meeting of Phase II of N2Africa project was held in Rwanda, in the period of 15 to 18 May, 2018 at Grand Legacy hotel in Kigali. The focus of this review and planning meeting was to reflect on achievements made and the future role for N2Africa based on what we have learned and to explore opportunities and barriers for reaching millions of smallholder farmers in Africa.
For the Rwanda team, it was a privilege to be selected to host this important event in the history of the project. It was an occasion for some of our colleagues from N2Africa family to visit the country of thousands hills, and the home of climbing beans in Central Africa region.
In Rwanda, N2Africa activities started as early as February 2010 with research activities in parallel with on- farm testing of the technology “need to inoculate soyabean” with few hundred farmers. At the end of the 8 years of the project, this technology has become the legacy of N2Africa, and reached thousands of farmers not only on soyabean but also on climbing bean varieties.
From Phase I, N2Africa had five direct partners who were very committed for the sustainability of project interventions: 1 partner in charge of research, and 4 in charge of technology dissemination and delivery. In the second phase of the project, more indirect partners joined in scaling up and out N2Africa technologies country wide. We purposely invited partners who were onboard from Phase I, for them to share experience on how they continued disseminating N2Africa technologies with a minimum intervention of the project, and also interact with other members of the N2Africa family and learn from them.
Feedback from some partners:
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“We thank N2Africa project leaders at all levels, to choose Rwanda to host the workshop and especially Rwanda N2Africa former coordinator, Mme Kantengwa Speciose to select DRD for field visit.
By Hakizimana Rwisebura Jacques / Developpement Rural Durable (DRD) |
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“I really liked the setup of the meeting. It was a participatory approach where all participants expressed their point of view. The meeting was so well organized. In the field visit, everyone has seen the existence of N2Africa in Rwanda, through the interaction with local partners, sustainability and scalability of interventions. Nevertheless, there are still points which were discussed in the national exit strategy which were not addressed on the way forward for the sustainability of N2Africa technologies in Rwanda (e.g. soyabean seed system, and labour saving tools).” By Cyrille Nzigiye / COCOF |
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“My name is Annuarite Uwera, a bean breeder at Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB). Being part of the N2Africa Project Annual Planning Meeting 2018, was a privilege for me as it was my first time to meet and mingle with N2Africa members from different countries. Personally, I was inspired by rhizobiology and the Scaling topics. I believe that the adoption of N2Africa technologies will be among the factors which contribute to the increase of legumes production and farmers income generations as well. Annuarite, RAB. Many thanks for inviting me to this meeting. Cheers!” |
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“Let the organizers of the workshop know that I was happy to see this meeting organized in Rwanda, and Rwanda was selected because of a purpose: we did so well under N2Africa project, and they knew it. I liked recommendations taken on the way forward after N2Africa life time especially the integration of private sector along the value chain of legumes inoculant production and distribution for sustainability and quality control of the product. Thank you”. By Felix Byamungu / Caritas Rwanda |
Speciose Kantengwa, former Country Coordinator of N2Africa-Rwanda and organizing host for this meeting