From January 2014, the University of Zimbabwe, Crop Science Department, assumed coordination of the project, taking over from CIAT. There has been a seamless changeover, with support from both Judith de Wolf, the previous N2Africa coordinator for Zimbabwe, and Dr Nelson Mango, the CIAT Country Representative in Zimbabwe. During early April, both Judith and Nelson visited the University for an official handover of the project, including two project vehicles (see photos).

N2Africa is being implemented in close collaboration with many partners. The key partners include Technoserve, CLUSA, IIAM, IFDC, IKURU and many Farmers Associations. The project is conducting dissemination campaigns, demonstration plots, training and awareness creation through these partners, with support from the project.

At the start of Phase II, a model for indirect dissemination is being formulated. Established Action Site partners are maintained and six new development partners willing to disseminate recommended N2Africa technologies have been identified.

In Rwanda the national project staff has been reduced to the country coordinator only. However, there are several partners involved in dissemination activities, inlucing DRD in the districts of Burera, and Gakenke, CARITAS Rwanda in Bugesera district, COCOF in Kamonyi district, and EPR in Kayonza. There are also informal partners such as Clinton Hunter Foundation and One Acre Fund (Tubura) who also have been actively disseminating N2Africa technologies outside the mandate zones of the project.

My PhD study aims at exploring the genetic diversity of groundnut-nodulating rhizobia and identifying promising strains for inoculant production to benefit the farmers and all stakeholders in groundnut production and utilization. I enrolled for the programme in the Centre for Rhizobium Studies (CRS), Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia in February, 2013. Thereafter I prepared my programme of study on the above topic and sampled groundnut root nodules and soils from Nigerian groundnut farmers’ fields in July/August, 2013.

The major accomplishment by April 2014 include meeting the University credit requirements and harvesting the screening trial from which promising isolates will be selected and tested in the field both in Brazil and Mozambique in 2014/15 and 2015/16 cropping seasons.

Soyabean has been grown since the early 20^th century in Zimbabwe with inoculation beginning during the 1960’s. Developments in crop and inoculation technology have progressively increased coverage to present day where inoculant and improved seed are available in every rural province in the country. While the seed industry has benefited from rigorous breeding programmes, inoculation has continued with a narrow range of exotic strains that display superior nitrogen fixation but may be challenged by the local agro-ecologies across the country.

Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) is an important food crop in many parts of Africa. Its yield is often hampered by nitrogen deficiency in soils despite its ability to nodulate and fix nitrogen with a wide range of rhizobia.

Legumes are inoculated with expectation that it will increase nitrogen fixation and grain yield. However, this is not always the case. Among the possible factors affecting the response of legumes to inoculation are competition between indigenous soil strains with introduced ones, sufficient population of soil rhizobia and environmental stresses.

On July 1, 2013 USAID and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) announced the Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership (SSTP) in Africa, a $47 million, four-year partnership intended to accelerate smallholder farmer access to transformative agricultural technologies.