The N2Africa West Africa Hub recently held a two-week training course on basic rhizobiology skills at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.

The programme was designed for laboratory technicians and postgraduate students that are involved in activities of the N2Africa project to enhance their knowledge and skills in the isolation, identification, characterisation and storage of rhizobia, as well as mobilising these organisms for inoculant production and inoculation for enhanced nitrogen fixation.

IITA scientists and partners working under the N2Africa project in Malawi launched the 2010-2011 planting season on 17 November in Bwalo II Village in T.A. Mtemambalame in Lilongwe District.

During the event, farmers were given seeds of improved varieties of soybean, groundnut, bean and cowpea for the planting season. Based on individual demands, farmers were offered inoculants for those that selected inoculation as their constraint; and TSP fertilizer for those that selected fertilizers as their constraint.

We plan to bring out N2Africa Podcaster on a trial basis each month in 2011: but that depends on you! Please send in your news items – by the end of third week each month - so we can include them in the next edition!

Thanks to Prof Inamoud Yattara and his team for organising the 14th AABNF conference which was held from the 13-17th December 2010 in Bamako, Mali. The major constraints to implementation of nitrogen fixing technologies identified by N2Africa (indicated above) were highlighted in the final communiqué from the conference. Congratulations to Prof Nancy Karanja, coordinator of activities in Kenya for N2Africa, who will host the next AABNF meeting in Nairobi in 2012.

I join Kenton in saying thanks to all of you - our partners, collaborators and wider community of N2Africa friends - for your support over the past year. We look forward to your continued commitment in 2011 as we start to scale up activities.

New Challenges

Dear Everyone,

We are sad to pass on the news that Herman Potgieter of Soygro (Pty) Ltd, Potchefstroom, South Africa passed away in a car accident on 1st of September. We have lost a key colleague who was committed to the promotion of rhizobial inoculants in Africa. Our heartfelt condolences go to all of his family and friends. 

Ken Giller

A strong vote of thanks to all the partners who hosted our N2Africa team during late September/October when Ken Dashiell, Abdullahi Bala, Robert Abaidoo and I toured the field in northern Ghana and Nigeria. It was humbling to experience the importance attached to our visit by the farmer groups, NGO and government partners who were clearly not used to receiving guests. The enthusiastic interest of the farmers convinces me that we are in a prime position to make massive impact through our work in this region.

In the latest issue of the New Agriculturalist which has a special focus on soils there is a feature highlighting N2Africa. See: Helping legumes become Africa's nitrogen factories