By CHARITY MOONGA –
AFRICAN governments should urgently put policies and infrastructure in place to ensure increased fertiliser access and use to raise agricultural productivity.
The African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) says this will be in line with the Abuja declaration on fertiliser for the African Green Revolution.
This is according to resolutions of a meeting convened in Johannesburg recently.
The meeting, organised by AFAP and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) discussed
progress made by African countries to ensure that Africa has a Green Revolution.
It also recommended the setting up of a secretariat to monitor progress on and push for achievement of the resolutions set out in the declaration.
Countries represented at the meeting reported marginal increase in fertiliser use.
Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Nigeria shared their experiences.
According to 2012 World Bank figures some of the countries with the highest increase in fertiliser use in sub-Saharan Africa are Ethiopia whose use per hectare increased from 11 kilogramme (KG) per hectare to 24; Ghana from 20 kg per hectare to 35; Kenya from 33 to 44.
Consumption in other countries has, however, decreased.
Fertiliser consumption in sub-Saharan Africa is low compared to Asian countries such as Malaysia where consumption averages 1570 kg per hectare, Hong Kong 1297 kg per hectare and Bangladesh at 278 kg per hectare.
Participants at the meeting agreed that African governments need to invest more in agro dealer development to improve fertiliser distribution, particularly under the government subsidy programmes.
It was agreed that agro dealer development should not be left to NGOs and private sector players only.
At the same time, IFPRI has shown that high prices may not only be the result of several supply- and demand-side constraints at the regional and local level.
Low-income regions are highly dependent on imported fertiliser and international import prices still represent a large fraction of thefinal price paid by farmers.
AFAP East and Southern Africa regional director Maria Wanzala, highlighted factors constraining increased use of fertilizer such as outdated or non-existent fertilizer laws and regulatory frameworks.
One of the resolutions focused on increasing fertiliser use in Sub-Saharan Africa from an average eight kg then, to 50 kg per hectare by 2015.