The recent Devex article African leaders pledge to triple fertilizer use to improve soil quality highlights critical issues to come out of the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit last month. It overlooks some essential points, however, namely that mineral, or chemical, fertilizers play a vital role, in coordination with other conservation practices, in addressing Africa's growing food demand and improving agricultural productivity.
Low-input agriculture in Africa, characterized by minimal or insufficient use of fertilizers, has led to the conversion of over 100 million hectares of forests and grasslands into cropland because of the low yields obtained with this practice. So instead of intensifying productivity on the limited amount of farmland, agricultural groups are extensifying, or expanding, farmland into forests and grasslands. This has caused land degradation, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions. Sufficient and balanced fertilizer use is in fact critical for productivity and food security.
The pledge signed at the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit, which involves tripling fertilizer use on the continent over the next decade, is primarily aimed at farmers currently using zero to minimal amounts of fertilizers, not farmers or countries that already have higher fertilizer use.
About the author
Henk van Duijn
Henk van Duijn is the president and CEO of the IFDC. Under his leadership, IFDC seeks to promote soil health as a holistic approach to agricultural development. Prior to assuming leadership at IFDC, van Duijn served as program director of 2SCALE, a Pan-African business incubator led by IFDC among other roles.
