1. Research achievements on
inoculation and partnership for the
dissemination of the technology in
Ghana: AGRA & Africa-Brazil
partnership
Mathias Fosu, R. M. Boddey, W. Atakora,
G.R. Xavier, A.P. Guimaraes, B. Ahiabor
2. Introduction: Soybean
• Ghana produces 85,
000 mt of soybean
annually
• Mean yield is 0.8
mt/ha
• Varieties are
promiscuous
• Bred to nodulate with
local rhizobia strains
4. • Grown mainly by
smallholder farmers as
food especially women
• Contains 25% protein
and serves as protein
source for rural poor
and children
• Used for many home
and street food in
Africa-kose, Akara,
red-red etc.
5. Cowpea yield in some African countries
462
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Cowpeagrainyield(kg/ha)
6. Reasons for low yield
•Low yielding varieties
•Low soil fertility (P & N
deficiency)
•No fertilizer use production
• Absence of inoculants
7. • Cowpea highly
promiscuous –i.e.
non-specific
• Large reservoir of
indigenous and
competitive
population of
rhizobia strains
•Mixture of low &
high efficacy strains
Inoculation–some challenges
8. • Breeding programs had very
limited focus on traits associated
with efficient BNF
• difficulties in developing markets
for inoculants
• expertise to produce inoculants
• Low support for research on BNF
Challenges
18. Project Objectives
• Tested 3 high-
performance rhizobium
strains from Brazil on
local cowpea varieties
• Introduced rhizobium
technology to farmers
• Trained one graduate
level technician in
inoculant production at
EMBRAPA
• Built capacity of SARI
laboratory to produce
rhizobium inoculants
19.
20. Effect of inoculation on nodulation in
cowpea, Northern Ghana 2011
Treatment
DMS: 629
Numbernodulesplant-1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
A A
B
B
DMS: 4,3
Non Inoculated
40 Kg N ha-1
BR 3262
BR 3299
Number of nodules
A
22. Effect of inoculation on grain yield of cowpea, on-
farm in Northern Ghana in 2011
Treatment
DMS: 2578
Grain yield
Weight(kgha
-1
)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
A
B
D
C
DMS: 170
Non Inoculated
40 Kg N ha-1
Strain 3267
Strain 3299
Source: Africa Brazil Innovative Marketplace, 2011
C
23. Effect of inoculation on
Total dry matter at final harvest
Site
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Drymatteryield(kgha
-1
)
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
Non-inoculated
40 kg N ha-1
Strain BR 3267
Strain BR 3299
2012
Source: Africa Brazil Innovative Marketplace, 2012
24. Grain yield
Site
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Grainyield(kgha
-1
)
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Non-inoculated
40 kg N ha-1
Strain BR 3267
Strain BR 3299
On-Farm: Effect of inoculation on grain yield of cowpea in Northern Ghana, 2012
Source: Africa Brazil Innovative Marketplace report, 2012
26. Nodule
weight
Shoot
Biomass
Shoot
Biomass
Grain Yield
--mg Plant-1 -----gPlant-1 --------kgha-1-------
Non
Inoculated 170 C 7.8 C 2255 CD 1368 CD
40 Kg N ha-1 156 C 19.2 A 1923 D 978 D
80 Kg N ha-1 90 C 16.6 B 1896 D 942 D
Strain 3262 530 A 6.8 C 3333 BC 1649 BC
Strain 3267 318 B 6.4 C 4788 AB 1829 ABC
Strain 3299 298 B 7.0 C 4083 ABC 2153 A
Mix 67/99 399 B 6.8 C 5852 A 1909 AB
CV % 35 19 25 23
Field station, second planting, 2012. Nodule weight and shoot biomass at
35 day after planting (DAP) and yield parameters at final harvest
Values are means of five replicates. Means within the same column
followed by the same letter are not different at p< 0.05
