Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Dr Asseta Diallo

25 Pages·2015·3.83 MB·English

by  Freelance Lance

Implementing positive strategies for effective use of
fertilizer in developing countries
Dr Asseta Diallo
Program Officer, Agribusiness (Fertilizer Supply and Policy) AGRA
(Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa)
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• Problem statement
• Fertilizer consumption increasing in Africa
• Challenges for African small holder farmers to access fertilizer
• AGRA’s contribution to grow fertilizer supply and use in Africa
‒ improving and increasing fertilizer supply
‒ supporting demand creation
‒ facilitating access to finance
‒ supporting policy initiatives
• Lessons learnt
• Way forward
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• Smallholders dominate Africa’s agriculture : around 69 million
households
• The yields of their crops is unfortunately too low to feed Africa that is
now spending over US$ 35 billion annually to import food
• soils present inherent difficulties for agriculture : nutrient mining by
crops, leaching, and inadequate erosion control
• Heads of African States recognized during the Abuja summit in 2006
that fertilizer is crucial and have engaged to increase the use to 50kg
per ha by 2015

Fertilizers are key for Africa’s agriculture transformation
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Fertilizer consumption increasing in Africa
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Source: FAO, Current world fertilizer trends and outlook to 2016,
Rome 2012
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Fertilizer consumption increasing in Africa
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Source: FAO statistics (FAOStat, 2012)
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• Affordability : Fertilizers cost are high
• Availability : many issues at supply side
• Physical accessibility : the distribution network doesn’t cover all areas of
smallholder farmers
• Financial accessibility : many small holder farmers don’t have financial
capability to buy fertilizers
• Limited awareness on fertilizers advantages
• Poor quality fertilizers
Fertilizers are expensive in Africa: high cost of
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finance, transportation and distribution
Domestic supply-chain cost components, average for Ghana, Nigeria, Mali,
Senegal in 2009 (Average cost per metric ton (US$))
Source: IFPRI Policy Brief 20, March 2012
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• Objective : Increase farmers’ financial and physical access to locally
appropriate soil nutrients and fertilizers
• Our approach : investing both in public and private sector
• 4 key areas :
– (i) supply side,
– (ii) demand creation at smallholder farmer level,
– (iii) facilitating access to finance and
– (iv) enabling policy environment
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• Supporting the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP)
‒ Increasing storage facilities in Mozambique, Ghana and Tanzania;
‒ Some fertilizer plants supported to increase their capacity of production of
blended fertilizer (Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania)
‒ Over 600,000 Mt of fertilizers moved through APCs

• Number of companies
increased from 2009
to date