Conference announcements

1. The World Soybean Research Conference IX.

This conference will take place February 17 – 22, 2013 at the Durban International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa. This year’s theme is "From China to Africa – Can research close the gap between soy production and increasing global demand?"

N2Africa Malawi bids farewell to Joseph Mhango

N2Africa in Malawi has lost Research Officer Joseph Mhango to the Seed Trade Association of Malawi. It was a difficult decision for him to make, and a hard one for us to accept, however we understand he cannot miss this opportunity to gain new skills and expertise.

Alastair Simmons, N2Africa’s Communication, Knowledge and Project Management Officer and currently the acting Project Coordinator, comments on the project moving forward

Advice given to someone undertaking a lengthy writing task. Always end one session by writing the points you will begin with next time. When the ideas are flowing but you have to stop to do something else, note down what you will do first next time, so you can easily recall what you intended, check it and get back into completing the task more quickly.

Introduction

Apart from our normal mix of news and developments in N2Africa, we’re delighted to welcome Jeroen Huising as N2Africa Project Coordinator based with CIAT-TSBF in Nairobi. Many of you will know Jeroen as he has worked with TSBF in Nairobi for many years on various projects – including coordinating the GEF funded Below-Ground Biodiversity project and more recently the African Soil Information Service (AfSIS).

The African Soil Health Consortium

N2Africa is working with the Africa Soil Health Consortium (ASHC) to produce dissemination materials related to integrated soil fertility management. The ASHC contributes towards radical change in the understanding and use of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) techniques in sub-Saharan Africa, enabling smallholder farmers to improve their crop yields.

ISFM Conference

The ISFM 2012 Conference takes place from 22-26 October. This is an excellent opportunity to highlight the work that N2Africa does, in a diversity of countries and over a wide range of topics. We encourage all N2Africa staff to submit an abstract for this conference. More information and the deadline for submission can be found on www.isfmafrica2012.org. Please send a copy of the abstract to esther.ronner@wur.nl, for coordination of the N2Africa contributions.

Esther Ronner