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. 

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,