During the 3^rd week of August, N2Africa project leadership team, core country coordinators and selected partners gathered for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) workshop and finalization of other Master Plans of the project.

N2Africa generates large volumes of agronomic and survey data. Timely analysis of this data is essential to ensure that on-going activities are properly informed by past findings. This places high demands on both the quality of data and on the speed with which it can be processed. For this reason, we have started to explore the use of tablet devices for data collection in the field. In collaboration with the U.S.-based company Nafundi, we are converting existing data collection forms to easy-to use electronic versions, using software called Open Data Kit (ODK).

This season N2Africa together with its disseminating partners is disseminating legume technologies to over 6000 farmers cultivating cowpea, groundnut and soyabean in seven districts in northern Ghana. N2Africa currently works with about ten partner organizations in Northern Ghana. These include Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Evangelical Presbyterian and Relief Agency. The rest are URBANET, ADVANCE, ProNorth, SBF and Wienco.

Community mobilization

IITA Youth Agripreneurs in collaboration with N2Africa on the 3^rd of September, 2014 flagged off the 3-week intensive training for 20 youths from Borno State proposed few months ago, which seeks to build the capacity of the youths in agribusiness as an income generating activity.

In this cropping season, N2Africa-Ethiopia has planned to reach more than 5000 farmers in 24 Woredas (districts) through its research and development partners (Federal and Regional Agricultural Research Institutes and Hawassa University). The Woredas have been identified as potential pulse growing areas earlier and located at four regions in Ethiopia (Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia and Southern Region).

Progress has been made in implementing the N2Africa project since its launch early this year and I am hereby pleased to briefly share the progress per objective:

Objective 1. M&E and capacity building