African ministers of agriculture call for affordable fertiliser access to boost food security

African ministers of agriculture advocated for affordable access to fertilisers to enhance food security and improve soil health at the second Africa fertiliser and Soil Health (AFSH) summit, held in Nairobi, Kenya from May 7-9, 2024. The ministers emphasised the importance of smallholder farmers having access to reasonably priced fertilisers to boost food production and ensure sustainable agricultural practices.

The continent’s largest soil health forum was held under Kenya’s President William Ruto and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, under the theme Listen to the soil. The summit was last held 18 years ago in Nigeria.

AFSH summit was preceded by a ministerial session on Day one and will conclude with a high-level meeting where the Nairobi Declaration will be signed, outlining a 10-year action plan for improving fertiliser use and soil health across Africa.

The ministers, led by Kenya’s cabinet secretary for agriculture, Mithika Linturi, expressed concern about the decline in soil quality across Africa, with some regions experiencing up to 65 per cent degradation. This degradation is primarily due to nutrient depletion and unsustainable farming practices, compounded by the high cost of fertilisers. 

Linturi underscored the urgent need for affordable fertilisers to reverse these trends and increase food production, especially in light of climate change’s impact on agricultural outputs.

“Africa needs to improve fertiliser use, be it organic or inorganic. Statistics indicate that the average amount of fertiliser applied to crops grown on the continent is still very low. Soil fertility depletion is the fundamental root cause of declining per capita production. Poor soil health is largely because of continuous mining of soil nutrients and inappropriate farming practices, among others,” said Linturi. 

Increasing soil health is critical, especially as climate change undermines food production gains, he added.

Experts noted significant disparities in fertiliser use across Africa. Egypt, for example, uses about 400 kilogrammes per hectare, while countries like South Sudan and the Central African Republic use as little as 0.02 kg and 0.23 kg per hectare, respectively. In many African countries, government subsidies help keep fertiliser costs down, but the average use still falls well below the global average of about 120 kg per hectare.

Linturi pointed out the negative impacts of land and soil degradation, such as reduced crop yields, food insecurity, lower agricultural income for farmers, and environmental damage. He also advocated for a collective approach to achieving food security by enhancing soil health, particularly in countries with limited arable land, like Kenya, where only 18 per cent of the land area is suitable for crop cultivation.

“In Kenya, for instance, the area under cereals production alone is 2.7 million hectares or 47 per cent of the total arable land (18 per cent). This puts pressure on the soils in such arid and semi-arid countries to produce enough food for both local consumption and export. This calls for action and we have to do it sustainably,” said the minister.

He also emphasised the importance of developing country-specific Soil Fertility Replenishment Strategies, which promote best practices in soil management and advocate for the use of both organic and inorganic fertilisers to ensure balanced nutrient fertilisation.

Several other ministers of agriculture from across the continent also spoke, sharing case studies of soil degradation and fertiliser use in their respective countries and what needs to be done in pursuit of a master plan for food and nutritional security in Africa.

Uganda’s Minister of Agriculture, Frank Tumwebaze, reflected on the goals established in June 2006 at the first AFSH summit and praised the modest progress made thus far, but urged for more sustained action.

“Crop yields in Africa are only one-third of the global yield average. Part of the solution is to increase fertiliser application on the continent, currently averaging between 18 kg to 25 kg per hectare. This is less than 50 percent of the target set out in the Abuja Declaration of 50 kg per hectare. In Uganda, we are at an average of a paltry 2 kg per hectare in some areas,” said Tumwebaze.

Financing solutions for affordable fertiliser

The summit brought together over 2,000 stakeholders from the agriculture sector, including African Heads of State, high-ranking government officials, senior policymakers, private-sector players and civil society organisations.

Other participants included representatives of farmer organisations and development agencies, including NGOs, scholars, scientists and representatives of leading donor organisations.

African Development Bank expressed willingness to explore areas of cooperation and partnerships in fertiliser financing across the continent and advocated for agritech scaling across the continent.

Other key stakeholders from various sectors were also represented. The Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, a global partnership that unites international organisations engaged in research about food security, called for rapid doubling of food production to meet the demands of the continent’s growing population.