N2Africa Putting nitrogen fixation to work for smallholder farmers in Africa

We are pleased to announce a scientific seminar to discuss and present the outcomes of the first four years of N2Africa. The event will take place in Nairobi from 28 to 30 of October 2013. Invitees include the N2Africa steering committee, our major partners and other stakeholders in the project representating all the N2Africa countries, from the scientific and development community as well as government representatives. The first two days will be spent sharing experiences among N2Africa partners.

N2Africa always has plenty to report – working across some many countries and regions! It’s hard to select a few highlights and although we actively solicit articles the Podcaster is formed largely by contributions offered. We are currently full speed ahead with preparations of the full proposal for a Phase II of N2Africa. As you will have read in earlier Podcasters we are expanding activities to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda, and together with Ghana and Nigeria these will be the focus countries.

We were sad to learn that Tom Corby passed away in January shortly before reaching his 100th birthday. Tom was one of the absolute front runners in research on the legume-rhizobium symbiosis in Africa, and in the world. He established the inoculant production factory at Grasslands, Marondera in 1962, which produces inoculants to this day. In 2011, Tom wrote a short history of the establishment of the factory called "The Bagacillo Legume-Inoculant".

The latest Bulletin of Tropical Legumes that features Mali, has now been added to the N2Africa website: Link

Announcement 27th SSEA and 6th ASSS conf. in Nakuru, Kenya, 20-25 October 2013 

The Soil Science Society of East Africa (SSSEA) in collaboration with African Soil Science Society (ASSS) invite participation at a conference intended to critically analyze Land and Water Management (LWM) technologies, innovative products and services; and strategies benefiting small-scale agriculture in Africa.

I’m writing this introduction from Ethiopia where Esther Ronner and I have been discussing N2Africa activities for this year with many partners in Bahir Dar, Debre Zeit and Addis Ababa. We have a ‘bridging grant’ from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to get N2Africa up and running in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda.

As Phase 1 of the N2Africa project comes to a close in October this year we have reviewed and agreed on work plans for the remaining period (and of course the finances). The planning of this year’s activities has been guided by what needs to be done to achieve our objectives for delivery and dissemination (D&D). On the other hand we will conduct an ‘early impact assessment’ to evaluate the success and draw lessons on how D&D of legume and BNF technologies can be improved in future.

The Crawford Fund Master Class was a two-week training course, held from the 1^st -13^th of December 2012 in the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka on all the skills and techniques of rhizobiology. Participants were from nine countries namely Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, India, Thailand, Vietnam and the host Sri Lanka. The facilitators were from Murdoch University, Australia and the coordinators were from Australia and Sri Lanka.

This podcast is designed to provide a glimpse into the Bill & Melinda Gates strategies and the people who work at the foundation, and is part of their ongoing effort to share information with you on a regular basis.

In January’s episode (Episode 5):

From Agro-Insight we received a link to a video on women in extension. The link is available several languages. Click the language of your choise if you want to watch: English, French, Kiswahili or Portugese.