Exploring the potential benefits of rhizobium inoculation with cowpea

By ojo.comfort , 23 September, 2015
Organizational Context
Name
Ojo Comfort Tinuade
Chairgroup
Plant Production Systems
Graduate school
Production Ecology and Resource Conservation
Start date of project
Abstract

Cowpea is an important food and fodder legume in the sub-humid tropics of Africa, with Nigeria being its largest producer at 2.58 +/- 0.31 million metric tonnes per year. Although cowpea has the ability to fix nitrogen with broad range of rhizobia it has been reported to respond positively to inoculation with specific strains. Biological nitrogen fixation is important in providing nitrogen to the growing cowpea and can contribute to better soil fertility. Given the problems of low soil fertility and high fertilizer costs, the development of cheap rhizobia inoculant may be a promising alternative for resource-poor smallholder’s farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims to explain observed differences in inoculation response in cowpea and to explore the potential benefits of rhizobium inoculation. The roles of the abundance and community structure of compatible rhizobia in determining inoculation response in different soils will be determined and their potential determinants identified by analysis of soil chemistry and cultivation history. Based on these results, a set of effective and competitive indigenous rhizobium strains will be identified to be tested for their potential as commercial inoculants.

 

Role supervisor

Professor Ken Giller will be the promoter for this project. Dr Rene Guerts of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology will be advice and provide necessary assistance in the molecular biology aspect of the project. Dr Joost van Heerwaarden will serve as the daily supervisor and provide necessary assistance on data analysis.

Dr Dianda Mahamadi in International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan will be responsible for the rhizobiology supervisory role in this project.

Who's collecting the data

I will be responsible for the data collection, however with the aid of N2 Africa Nigeria some preliminary datasets such as location coordinates of farmers field will be provided. 

Who's analysing the data

All analysis will be carried out by me with assistance from my supervisors.

Location short term storage

All data will be stored on my local harddisk in a folder called Thesis.

Within this Thesis folder, I'll create per chapter the folders: Data, Model, Paper and Scripts. The Data folder has two sub-folders called: Raw and Processed.

Folder contents:

  • Data - Raw sub-folder: Contains all raw data and meta-data (a description of your data).
  • Data - Processed sub-folder: Contains all processed data. 
  • Model folder: Complete listing of the model and the model results & analysis.
  • Paper folder: Text of a chapter / paper.  
  • Scripts folder: Contains all scripts used.
Backup procedure

The complete content of my local Thesis folder will be stored on the backup server of PPS. 

During periods I'm abroad, I'll backup the complete content of my local Thesis folder to a Dropbox Thesis folder and share the contents with my supervisor(s). 

Research data with value for long term storage

All datasets used for my project, analysis reports, publications, posters.

Research data excluded for long term storage. Why?

All data will be stored on my local harddisk in a folder called Thesis.

Within this Thesis folder, I'll create per chapter the folders: Data, Model, Paper and Scripts. The Data folder has two sub-folders called: Raw and Processed.

Folder contents:

Data - Raw sub-folder: Contains all raw data and meta-data (a description of your data).
Data - Processed sub-folder: Contains all processed data. 
Paper folder: Text of a chapter / paper.  
Scripts folder: Contains all scripts used.

Backup procedure: 

The complete content of my local Thesis folder will be stored on the backup server of PPS. 

During periods I'm abroad, I'll backup the complete content of my local Thesis folder to a Mendeley folder and share the contents with my supervisor(s). 

Research data with value for long term to be stored: 

All datasets used for my project, analysis reports, publications, posters.  

Research data excluded for long term storage. Why?: 

None.

Plans for sharing data?

As far as possible all data will be publically available.

How to access data once you leave?

The PhD Library site of PPS: On this location all data for each chapter of my thesis will be stored in a separate zip file.

Specific funders requirements for sharing data, or to impose embargo?

None

Other parties involved? Agreements on data sharing?

N2Africa and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan will share some datasets from this project.

N2Africa has the sole right for release of data information from this project.

Other persons contributing (e.g. writing code)

My supervisors are fully responsible for any other contribution aside from me in this project.

Other persons with specific responsibility for data?

Full responsibility for the management of the collected datasets will be provided by N2Africa. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan who is a partner in this project will have access to the dataset via permission from N2Africa.

Privacy, security issues? How you deal with them?

All privacy sensitive data will be excluded from the datasets that will be made publicly available.