Doricas Akeyo, a master farmer (left), and Florence Imbokha (right), a follower farmer evaluating the effect of soybean inoculation at Butere village- Western Kenya. Florence had learned from Doricas that the black powder they put on the seed just before planting was going to make the soybean have more nodules on their roots and that these nodules would help the plants grow larger and have a higher grain yield. Doricas explained that these nodules are like very small factories making nitrogen fertilizer. The inoculated soybean plot on this farm is clearly darker green and more prolific than the uninoculated plot. More than 900 farmers in Western Kenya have evaluated the effect of soybean inoculum on their own farms during 2010. Grain yields will be reported in an forthcoming issue of N2Africa Podcaster.
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