Overview of N2Africa-Ethiopia Project: Achievements and Future Plans

Dr. Endalkachew Welde-Meskel (ILRI), Mr. Tamiru Amanu (ILRI)

Project background N2Africa is a science-based “research-in-

development” project funded by BMGF

The main objective of the project:

Increase biological nitrogen fixation and productivity of grain legumes,

Contribute to enhanced soil fertility,

Improve household nutrition and increased cash income.

The project covers four regional national states in Ethiopia also with due emphasis on:

Value chain development and gender and nutrition

Major partners :

Federal and regional agricultural research institutes,

Universities (Hawassa and Bahir Dar)

Federal, regional zonal and district MoA,

ILRI

Private input companies (Menagesha Plc.) and farmers.

Focus legume crops:

Common bean, faba bean, chickpea and soybean.

Annual planning workshop 15-16 April 2014 to: Explain the activity clusters within the

agronomy master plan and interfaces with other project master plans

Provide a planning forum and share responsibilities

Ensure timely delivery of outputs Partners from public and private sectors Presentations on: Agronomy master plan: Some findings of rhizobiology Typical legume crops value chain synthesis

results Feed value of legume crops residues Gender and nutrition

Detailed planning for 2014 on: Agronomy activity clusters with due

consideration of Value chain development , gender and nutrition and animal feed value of legume residues

Pictures

Ways forward • Follow up and supervision of planned activities

• Inventory of potential value chain actors for the priority

legume crops and establish market linkages

• Strengthen engagement of private sector involvement

• Establishment of public-private partnerships

• Capacity building (inoculant technology, gender

mainstreaming, business development skills)

• Facilitate community based seed systems development

Phase II launch Workshop 27-28 February 2014. Project management, invited professionals

from sister N2Africa project and various stakeholders attended

Project strategic documents presented and common understanding created

Results from the bridging phase shared Further consolidation of project strategic

directions and project implementation with stakeholders

Endalkachew Welde-Meskel and Tamiru Amanu

E.Woldemeskel@cgiar.org, T.Amanu@cgiar.org ● ILRI, Ethiopia.

Prepared for a capacity development workshop of the

CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics, Nairobi, 29 April – 2 May 2014

http://humidtropics.cgiar.org/

This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License April 2014

Achievements The May-December 2013 bridging period provided a launch-pad for

phase II.

Partnerships established with key partners.

Capacity building on inoculant technology (training of researchers, technicians and DAs)

Assembly of appropriate inputs

Actual implementation of N2Africa activities

Baby and mother trails established across the regions (150 baby trials and 20 mother plots)

Farmers (both males and females) were trained on input applications and field management

Field days organized and feedback collected

Results from some regions indicated positive responses for inputs (fertilizers and inoculants)

Furthermore, baseline survey was undertaken to better understand the biophysical and socio-economics situations

በሀዋሳ ዩኒቨርሰቲ የም ርም ርና ልማት ዳይሬክቶሬት ከN 2 Africa ፕሮጀክት

ጋር በመተባበር ያ ዘጋጀ የ አርሶ አደሮች የመስክ በዓል 23 ጥቅምት 2006 ዓ.ም.

HAWASSA UNIVERSITY – RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

DIRECTORATE in collaboration with N2 Africa project

Farmers’ field day

Boricha፣ yirba

02 November, 2013

April- May 2014