About This Project

This research aims to provide affordable and environment friendly fertilizer to farmers for rational decision making for their livelihoods in legume production and conserving environment. We propose that inoculation of peanut and cowpea with rhizobia would improve their growth and production hence, different native rhizobia will have various abilities for fixing nitrogen in the farms across the 47 counties of kenya based on different soil conditions.

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What is the context of this research?

This project will assess the main constraints to enhanced use of legumes for multiple purposes such as food and nutrition, fodder, fuel and organic nitrogen, including market and value chain aspects. It will also contribute interventions related to productivity aspects, including aspects of soil-plant interaction (Nitrogen Fixation) and soil health, develop quantitative tools for assessing contributions of cowpea and peanut to farming systems, novel practices for using these crops in intensified dairy production, and enhance natural resource integrity through inclusion of nodules collected from legume trees found in tropical Kakamega rain forest. The project will tap into the partnerships network of community reach in order to capacity build on climate smart agriculture through utilization of leguminous crops.

What is the significance of this project?

Disparities in soil nutrients, pollution, compaction, acidification, salinization, physical health of the soil, and soil organic matter levels are all related to changes in soil conditions leading to decline in soil fertility. This research focuses on assessing and characterize root nodulating rhizobia, the relationship between plants and soil bacteria that allow plants to use atmospheric nitrogen with high through put molecular technique and identify strains that can adapt to soil pH in Kenya. Nodules will be used for isolation of bacterial strains for the purpose of creating bio-fertilizer an alternative to synthetic fertilizer that is associated with high prices to poor farmers. The results of this study could be very helpful in choosing rhizobium strains that are tolerant to cowpea and peanuts, as well as in evaluating the effects of these strains on other crops to determine the best possible plant-rhizobium interaction.

What are the goals of the project?

The goal of the project is to improve food and nutrition security, reduce poverty, and enhance eco-friendly fertilizer by smallholder farmers and rural populations through affordable fertilizer. Our projection is to build resilience and agricultural sustainability for climate change adaptations strategies scalable to various vulnerable communities and regions based on the farming practices. In addition, we intend to provide knowledge and tools to farmers and stakeholders interacting with farmers to make rational decisions for enhancing short and long-term contributions of cowpea and peanut crops to farmer livelihoods including aspects of legume production, input supply systems, and markets.