Humans love them, herbivorous animals thrive on them, the earth benefits from their presence, but not enough are being grown.
From the vegetarian platters of Ethiopia, to Githeri in Kenya, Saka Madesu in the Congo, and the ubiquitous groundnut, Legumes continue to sustain people across the African continent.
The paradox, however, is their extremely low coverage, especially in African farming systems, where they could play a pivotal role in the lives and livelihoods of farmers, their families, and the continent at large.
This is precisely what LegumeCHOICE, a participatory research framework, aims to understand. Led by IITA, and supported by ICRAF and ILRI, the BMZ and Humidtropics funded research targets the underexploited potential of multi-purpose legumes towards improved livelihoods and better environments in crop-livestock systems in East and Central Africa.
The partnership incorporates national researchers from the humid and sub-humid areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, international counterparts from CGIAR, and universities, and it is a part of the larger Humidtropics Program.
Hybrid maize-cassava-soybean intercropped on a farm. Photo by IITA.
What LegumeCHOICE researchers will seek to understand are the niches and ‘entry points’ that could be covered with the vast array of legumes—ranging from trees through to perennial, annual herbaceous and grain legumes—and the constraints to their expansion.
They will look at intensification and diversification, management option failures, socio-economic factors, and cultural issues, which are far more complex within the African smallholder mixed-farming systems than, for example, in temperate commercial farming systems.
Through on-farm participatory action research in Diga and Jeldu districts (Ethiopia); Kisii and Migori (Kenya); Bushumba and Mushinga (DRC), the initiative will support the farmers themselves to design tests on opportunities for legumes they identify.
Tom Ochinga, ICRAF Kisumu, at the LegumeCHOICE training held in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo by Ake Mamo, ICRAF.
The first ‘Facilitators training on farming systems characterization and entry point identification’ was held at ICRAF in Nairobi on July 7-9, 2014, ran by Ingrid Oborn of ICRAF and Generose Nziguheba of IITA. This training will be followed by the first baseline survey on the farm/household typologies, legume options and yields, as well as their management and use (including within livestock systems and their cash income contributions).
In addition to high levels of protein in their herbage and seeds, serving as highly nutritious food and fodder, a primary role of legumes in the environment is to capture atmospheric nitrogen and ‘fix’ nitrogenous compounds into the soil, thereby increasing soil fertility as green fertilizers. This function, especially in low-fertility areas and severely depleted soils, reduces the need for mineral nitrogenous fertilizers, which allows even the poorest of farmers access to soil fertility, the lack of which poses a serious threat to food production and food security.
Although improving food and nutrition security is a primary goal, LegumeCHOICE aims also to give farmers and development partners better options for decisions on enhancing short and long-term contributions of multi-purpose legumes to farmer livelihoods. These include aspects of legume production, input supply systems, and markets.
Blog by Ake E. Mamo, Liaison and Communications Associate, ICRAF.
Read Ake’s original blog on the ICRAF website:Â http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/index.php/2014/07/28/legumes-a-unified-solution-to-food-fodder-and-soil-fertility-in-africa/