Woman farmer tending a soybean field |
The project started in 2009 and
works with smallholder farmers in Africa to exploit the nitrogen-fixation
potential of legumes to improve soil fertility and contribute to improving food
security and nutrition. It has reached more than 250,000 farmers across eight
countries with better legume varieties and improved farming practices —
including the use of phosphorus fertilizers and rhizobia inoculants.
Many of the beneficiary farmers
more than doubled their legume yields and also significantly increased the
yields of successive crops as a result of improved levels of soil
nitrogen. Annual net household income
rose by an estimated average of $355.
The project was led by Wageningen
University together with IITA and the International Centre for Tropical
Agriculture (CIAT). The first phase, funded by the Gates Foundation and the
Howard G. Buffet Foundation, was implemented in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra
Leone, and Zimbabwe.
With the new funding from the Gates
Foundation, N2Africa Phase 2 will focus on five core countries—Ghana, Nigeria,
Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda—but will maintain activities in the other
countries involved in Phase 1.
In addition to enhancing production
in the major legume-growing areas of each partner country, Phase 2 will
strengthen partnerships with both the public and private sectors, such as seed,
inoculants, and fertilizer companies, to ensure a sufficient and consistent
supply of inputs to the smallholder farmers and to improve markets.
“In the second phase, we will build
on the successes we achieved in Phase 1. We will work with the public and
private sector to create sustainable input supply and marketing chains to
ensure the best legume technologies, including the inoculums, are easily
available and affordable to African smallholder farmers,” says Bernard
Vanlauwe, IITA’s Director for the Central Africa Hub and natural resource
management. We will drive the adoption of these technologies by linking the
smallholder farmers to
local, regional, and international legume markets.”
local, regional, and international legume markets.”
Phase 1 focused on identifying
inoculants for soybean. The second phase extends the search to include
inoculants for other legumes such as common bean, cowpea, and groundnut, among
others, to enhance
legume production. It will also build the capacities of national researchers to conduct research on legume and rhizobial inoculants, based on the priorities for each participating country.
legume production. It will also build the capacities of national researchers to conduct research on legume and rhizobial inoculants, based on the priorities for each participating country.
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