For Nigeria Nkeki Kamai chose this article from Podcaster 39, September 2016 as from recent developments in Ojo’s work the answer to that question is YES. If a functional inoculant for cowpea can be developed from work of a N2Africa student then this is one of the greatest news for Nigeria. Remember Nigeria is the largest producer, the largest consumer and the largest net importer of cowpea in Africa. 

Samuel Adjei Nsiah selected this article because our partnership has resulted in the development of a special fertilizer blend for grain legume crops in Ghana. Besides, this fertilizer blend has been adopted by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana for use in the production of soyabean in Ghana within the framework of the government flagship program “Planting for Food and Job”.

Endalkachew wolde-Meskel chose to repeat the Ethiopian part of the article on the PPP, from Podcaster 29 (January and February 2015), as the PPP was a useful approach that N2Africa followed to promote the dissemination of legume technology and value chain in Ethiopia. Mapping relevant stakeholders and functionalizing the PPP at the different corners of the country, we were able to reach more than 50,000 of smallholders, made possible smallholders access to inoculants - an essential element of the N2Africa legume production technology.

N2Africa is a large scale, science-based “research-in-development” project funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and focused on putting nitrogen fixation to work for smallholder farmers growing legume crops in Africa. N2Africa aims to enhance productivity of grain legumes of smallholder farmers which in turn helps to increase income, improve household nutrition, and enhance soil fertility.

The DRC is the third largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria. It stretches from the Atlantic to the East African Rift plateau. It includes the major part of the Congo River basin. Crossed by the equator, it has a warm and humid climate in the region of the river basin, and a drier and cooler climate in the south. The DRC counts 64 million inhabitants.

The Cluster Agriculture Development Services (CADS) implemented the N2Africa project activities during the last six years, principally in Goromonzi and Mutoko districts. CADS fosters better livelihoods for various communities faced with different challenges. The high HIV-AIDS prevalence has intensified the challenges. One of the entry points to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic is through improved access to locally produced nutritious diets.

After eight good years of working with thousands of smallholder farmers across seven districts during Phase I and five districts during Phase II, N2Africa Zimbabwe is now wrapping up the active funding phase of the project. In Zimbabwe, we are entering ‘Phase III’ in which farmers and our N2Africa partners will continue to reap the benefits of N2Africa technologies and approaches.