Introduction
N2Africa in Ethiopia
Introduction
N2Africa is a large scale, science-based “research-in-development” project focused on putting nitrogen fixation to work for smallholder farmers growing legume crops in Africa funded by BMGF. Its vision of success is to build sustainable, long-term partnerships to enable African smallholder farmers to benefit from symbiotic N2-fixation by grain legumes through effective production technologies, including improved seeds, inoculants and fertilizers and sustainable input supply chains and grain market access. The project will run for five years and is led by Wageningen University together with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ([http:www.iita.org/| IITA]) and the International Livestock Research Institute ([http:www.ilri.org/| ILRI]).
The main objective of N2Africa project is to increase biological nitrogen fixation and productivity of grain legumes among African smallholder farmers, contributing to enhanced soil fertility, improved household nutrition and increased cash income. The legacy will be strong national expertise in grain legume production and N2-fixation research and development. The capacity built will sustain the pipeline and delivery of continuous improvement in legume production technologies tailored to local settings. The target legumes in Ethiopia are Common bean, Soybean, Chickpea and Faba bean.
File:Major Objectives of N2Africa Project -Phase II.docx File:N2Africa Project Results Framework.docx
N2Africa Geographical Target Areas in Ethiopia
The map below shows N2Africa geographical target areas for Ethiopia in Oromia, Amhara, SNNPR and Benishangul Gumuz regions, with the background of broad agro-ecological zones based on the length of growing period.
Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)
N2Africa has designed and developed public-private partnerships (PPP) as an approach and mode of project implementation. The four pillars orchestrated to ensure long-term sustainability: knowledge transfer, legume technology dissemination, efficient input supply chains and access to markets.
Potential Ethiopian partners in the legume value chain were mapped during 2014-2015 and organized into seven PPP Clusters.