One of the most important components of the production packages being disseminated to farmers by N2Africa are improved varieties of soybean, common bean, groundnut and cowpea. Many of these improved varieties have been developed and tested by the Tropical Legumes II (TL-II) project. For example there are numerous soybean varieties that are being introduced to farmers that were developed by TL- II. In March the N2Africa project leader, Kenton Dashiell was in Malawi and met with Hailu Tefera (pictured) the scientist leading the TL-II soybean breeding project.

During February Professor Paramu Mafongoya lead a group of N2Africa team members to several different project sites in Zimbabwe to meet farm families that are participating in our project. Many families were growing soybean for the first time even though they had seen it produced by other farmers. Most were very impressed with the excellent growth and lack of disease and insect problems. The main concern of farmers in Zimbabwe is to have an accessible market for their soya produce. In addition, farmers want to know how to use soybean for consumption in their households.

CIALCA and the CGIAR Consortium Research Programme (CRP) on the Humid Tropics have the pleasure of announcing an international conference on the 'Challenges and Opportunities for Agricultural Intensification of the Humid Highland Systems of sub-Saharan Africa', to be convened in Kigali, Rwanda from 24-27 October 2011. 

N2Africa project activities in the DRC were initiated in February 2010. 

Staff
Three local staff members have been appointed for the N2Africa project:
- Jean-Marie Sanginga, in charge of agronomy
- Dieudonne Masumbu, in charge of disseminations
- Yves Irenge, administrator

Activities of N2Africa project were initiated in Rwanda since February 2010. At the beginning, 3 partners were involved in field activities mainly on dissemination of technologies in 5 districts of the country which constitute the mandate zones of the project. To date, 6 partners are on board in the execution of almost all the 5 objectives of the project. The table below gives detailed information about these partners.

Table: N2Africa partners from Rwanda and their area of intervention

This month we highlight some emerging results from East and Central Africa. It’s great to see some concrete outputs starting to show up which repay the enthusiasm and hard work put in by our partners and staff on the ground. We also introduce some of the new national staff who are working in various countries, and projects of students working within N2Africa. Read on!

Ken Giller

My focus is on climbing beans from Northern Rwanda and their potentials to fix biological nitrogen. I am conducting a ten month MSc research project with Plant Production Systems (Wageningen University) and CIAT-TSBF, in two N2Africa mandate areas. I just completed four months of data collection, during which I quantified in detail farmers management and their perceptions on beans for their livelihood and farming system. 

Working with farmers to evaluate the impact of inoculating soybean seeds with nitrogen fixing rhizobia was one of the first field tasks in East and Central Africa. Farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, and DR Congo observed exceptionally vigorous soybean plants with deep green leaf color and prolific nodulation on plants growing in some plots inoculated with rhizobia which translated into increases in yield.

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The rank of the N2Africa team continues to swell following recent recruitments in the West African Hub. Since November 2010, three staff have joined the project in Nigeria and one in Ghana.