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360º PERSPECTIVES | ISSUE 7 | 2020/2021
Research enhances small-scale farming practices » Researchers at the University of the Western Cape’s Department of Biotechnology in the Faculty of Natural Sciences are helping smallscale farmers in the Eastern Cape to improve their practices.
T
HE DEPARTMENT’S PROFESSOR NDIKO LUDIDI
has been leading the Plant Biotechnology Research Group’s efforts to help farming cooperative DI Farms, in Mthatha, become a major producer of soybeans. The research group believes soybeans could be the answer to Africa’s agricultural and food security problems. Prof Ludidi’s collaborators are Prof Marshall Keyster of UWC and Dr Ifeanyi Egbichi of
Walter Sisulu University. Former UWC student Sisiphiwo Dingana is also assisting the research project which is funded by the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS). In 2017, Prof Ludidi started working with Mthatha farmers and introduced planting practices to improve the health of their soil. Soybean was identified as a key crop for enriching the soil through nitrogen fixation. Like most legumes, soybean is able to take in molecular nitrogen from the air and transfer it to its root nodules where microorganisms, in a process called nitrogen fixation, convert the nitrogen into ammonia and other nitrogenous compounds that plants can use. This eliminates the need for nitrogen fertilisers.
