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
EndalkachewWelde-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
ዩኒቨርሰቲ የም ርም ርና ልማት ዳይሬክቶሬት ከN 2 Africa ፕሮጀክት
ጋር በመተባበር ያ ዘጋጀ የአርሶ 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