Legumes are capable of establishing symbiotic associations with rhizobia in a process called biological nitrogen fixation which is responsible for the wide adoption of legumes as food crops, forages, green manures and in forestry. Recently, the call for the return to a sustainable form of agriculture due to pollution of water body by nitrate and increase in cost fertilizer has caused an increased interest in biological N₂-fixation.

Soyabean (Glycine max L.) is the world’s important food legume of great nutritional value. The crop has the highest protein content (40%) of all food crops and is equivalent to proteins of animal products. The crop holds considerable potential for arresting soil fertility decline and enhancing household food nutrition. Therefore, this study aimed at exploiting soyabean genotypes for yield under Rhizobia inoculation across three locations in the Savanna Region of Nigeria.

Field trials were conducted in 2015 and 2016 seasons to evaluate the response of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) varieties (KAMPALA, KWANKWASO, SAMNUT 21, SAMNUT 23, SAMNUT 24, and SAMNUT 25) to rhizobial inoculation treatments (rhizobium strains NC 92, SBG 234, MJR 518, WDL 129, +N (20 kg N ha^-1), and -N (Control)) in the Sudan and northern Guinea savannas of Nigeria. Results of the 2015 trials were reported in Podcaster 39. The results obtained in 2016 showed similar trends to 2015.

Last month I was delighted to host Christian Witt (Senior Project Officer for N2Africa at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). In addition to updating Christian on N2Africa we joined discussions with a large, high-level delegation from Ethiopia visiting Wageningen.

A PhD student from Warwick, after hearing Ken Giller talk about N2Africa at her University, opted for a 10 day research placement within N2Africa and was given the opportunity to visit N2Africa Uganda. After her return she wrote:

Dear Ken,

I returned from Uganda this week. I must say I have been amazed by the work that is done there! It is an incredible idea and the science communication is excellent! The team of N2AFRICA seems to be very carefully chosen. Inspiring, strong people that love their job and they taught me a lot.

For over sixty years, Mr. Clement Hange has been a farmer in his community of Mbanor in Konshisha Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. All that time he was happy with the returns he got from his farming efforts. However, when he got selected as a lead farmer to take care of a demonstration plot for his farmer group ‘Hange Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Ltd’, he changed his mind on how he had been farming soyabean for over two decades.