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.

We appreciate the efforts made by the WOCAN consultants, Mary Njenga and Jeannette Gurung, in compiling the report on enhancing gender responsiveness in the N2Africa project. It made us reflect upon the way in which the project aims to act upon gender issues and made our position clear. In essence, the N2Africa project is mainly operating in a gender accommodative mode – rather than a gender transformative one.

When working across eight countries in West, East and southern Africa we always have plenty to report! Whilst the cropping season is heading for harvest in West Africa a new crop has emerged in East Africa and sowing preparations are fully underway in southern Africa. And of course the strong seasonality in Africa means that there are always issues of getting ready for the next season or crop marketing throughout the year.

Bio-prospecting for rhizobia is an important component within the work plans of Objective 3 researchers, but one that is open to innovative approaches. This activity (3.2) requires that a rhizobium germplasm bank be established and characterized in order to document the biodiversity of rhizobia in Africa and a culture collection maintained among multiple laboratories as a future genetic resource.

Preparations for N2Africa 2011/12 growing season commenced on 1^st July 2011 in Malawi. The IITA/CIAT team began with sensitization meetings with farmers in almost all the project sites and the activity is still ongoing. The sensitization meetings covered several topics including capacity building of farmer groups, demonstration plots, supervision and data collection, monitoring and evaluation and marketing.