African leaders pledge to triple fertilizer use to improve soil quality

African leaders have vowed to triple fertilizer use on the continent over the next decade as part of a major effort to boost food production and improve the nutritional quality of African agricultural soils, which are in decline amid overuse and the effects of climate change. That pledge, laid out in the Nairobi Declaration, was signed by African heads of state Thursday at the close of the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. It was the first such summit to be held in 18 years and brought together some 4,000 delegates to deliberate the state of soil health and food security, while also finding ways to incentivize fertilizer use — particularly among smallholder farmers — over the next decade. In addition to the declaration, by the end of the three-day event, heads of state had approved a 10-year African Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan, agreed on a financing mechanism for that plan, and endorsed the Soil Initiative for Africa. The fertilizer plan calls for the tripling of domestic production and distribution of certified quality organic and inorganic fertilizers to improve access and affordability for smallholder farmers, while the soil initiative seeks to reverse land degradation and restore health of at least 30% of degraded soil. “We have made significant commitments in the areas of soil health, fertilizer and financing. I believe these commitments will greatly contribute to achieving the Africa we want as outlined in the AU agenda 2063,” Kenya’s President William Ruto said during the summit’s closing. Kenya co-hosted the event along with the African Union. The summit also saw debate over the use of mineral, or chemical, fertilizers versus their organic alternatives. Many civil society organizations advocating for agroecology felt that the summit had left them out and that the discussion on soil health and fertilizer lacked their input. Agroecology is the practice of integrating local knowledge with scientific innovation to restore biodiversity and build resilient food systems. Over 140 million people face acute food insecurity in Africa, despite the continent containing some 60% of the world’s arable land. But declining quality of the soil, along with low use of fertilizers, means that Africa’s agricultural yields are among the world’s lowest. Some of the barriers to fertilizer use in Africa include high costs to smallholder farmers and lack of investment in local fertilizer production. Most African countries average 18 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of cropland, according to the African Union. More than 40 African countries fall below the target of 50 kg of fertilizer per hectare as set out at the first Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2006. Africa’s soils have lost macro- and micronutrients mainly through crop harvesting and soil erosion, according to Boaz Waswa, a soil scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Climate change has also exacerbated this. Meanwhile, there has never been a comprehensive, continent-wide plan to put nutrients back in the soil, said Enock Chikava, director of agricultural delivery systems at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “That's why we talk now about the fertilizer, because it is going to be hard to create nutrients without having to apply them externally,” he told Devex prior to the summit. The foundation is a partner of the AU Commission and has funded a number of fertilizer and soil initiatives on the continent. The fertilizer debate Going into the summit, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, a coalition of civil society groups that advocates for agroecology, hoped that there would be a focus on biofertilizers and involvement of farmers and civil society in the plan to restore soil health. Biofertilizer includes living cells such as bacteria or fungi applied to soil or seeds to improve nutrients. Days before the summit, AFSA’s General Coordinator Million Belay called for the revision of the AU’s fertilizer plan. “Civil society has a pivotal role in the fertilizer and soil health debate, not only by linking actors across the value chain but by questioning narratives that threaten seed diversity, nutrition, health, and environmental integrity,” he said in a statement. “It’s disconcerting that African civil society was not consulted in the planning of the African Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit nor in the formulation of its 10-year plan.” However, during the summit, African governments generally called for more fertilizer — both organic and inorganic — and there was little focus on agroecology or a phaseout of chemical fertilizer. During his opening statement, Frank Tumwebaze, minister for agriculture in Uganda, said that from the summit he hoped to hear of “how to increase fertilizer consumption in the continent, not for the sake of it, but because Africa needs it if we are to feed our people and reduce vulnerability to the shocks of our food systems.” He called for the increased use of both organic and inorganic fertilizer. Bridget Mugambe, a program coordinator with AFSA, told Devex that mineral fertilizer is the reason why the continent’s soils are unhealthy to begin with. “The minister of agriculture from Ethiopia spoke of 70% of the soils in Ethiopia being acidic,” she said. “Ironically, they are also advancing the use of mineral fertilizer to deal with this challenge which was caused by the use of the same mineral fertilizer. We feel that our governments should accept what is not working and look for agroecological practices that are working and support those.” On soil health, Mugambe said that the reason why the soils are getting more acidic is because farmers keep increasing the amount of chemical fertilizer they use to increase yields. “As the soils get more depleted of their nutrients, you have to add so we see people moving from 60 kilos to 100 kilos applying more and more fertilizer, which is not sustainable,” she said. Waswa agrees with Mugambe, saying that the concept of soil health goes beyond the nutrients the soil needs to have its proper structure for proper establishment of the plant. Both mineral and organic fertilizer can be used concurrently, Waswa said. The mineral fertilizer, he said, enables the crops to grow fast in the short term, but organic fertilizers and sound agronomic practices are needed to address the soil health. Warnings of fertilizer overuse On the summit’s final day, African heads of state took the podium to speak about how the ravages of climate change, soil degradation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and geopolitics had all affected food security. Only President Nangolo Mbumba of Namibia and Prime Minister Russell Dlamini of Eswatini called for caution in embracing mineral fertilizer. Mbumba spoke of how its indiscriminate use should not be encouraged. “It is important to note that while fertilizer has a role in increasing agricultural productivity, its indiscriminate use can also have negative environmental consequences such as soil acidification, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. Mbumba advised that a balanced approach is essential. During his speech, he endorsed the Nairobi Declaration, as did Dlamini. The declaration commits to operationalizing the African Fertilizer Financing Mechanism, domiciled at the African Development Bank. It also directs that a soil health fund be created within the same financing mechanism. “We request the AU Commission to mobilize financial and technical resources to execute these commitments in close cooperation with the various existing climate funds,” the heads of states wrote in the Nairobi Declaration.