Opinion: Balanced fertilizer use is essential to agriculture in Africa

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. While the Africa Fertilizer Summit in 2006 focused on mineral fertilizer use, the 2024 summit, along with the extensive preparatory work involved, highlighted a crucial shift toward recognizing the importance of soil health. Over the past 18 years, the conversation has evolved significantly, expanding from a narrow focus on mineral fertilizers to a broader understanding of sustainable agricultural practices that protect and reinvigorate the ground beneath our feet. This year’s summit's emphasis on soil health reflects this progressive change, underscoring the need for a holistic approach to agriculture that nurtures soil vitality. It is essential to emphasize this evolution and avoid reverting to the outdated debate on mineral fertilizers alone. Despite scientific evidence that fertilizers do not deteriorate the soil if applied judiciously, fertilizer use has been controversial in Africa. Agronomists have long advocated the judicious use of fertilizers according to the 4R nutrient stewardship framework: right source, right rate, right time, and right place. This improves efficiency while minimizing negative impacts on soil and ecological health. Low use of plant nutrients in Africa is leading to nutrient mining from soils due to negative input-output balance, resulting in soil degradation, food insecurity, and environmental challenges. These problems were evident before the 2006 Abuja Declaration on Fertilizers aimed to jumpstart an African Green Revolution by improving fertilizer use to 50 kilogram per hectare by 2015. As Namibia President Nangolo Mbumba stated during the AFSH summit, indiscriminate or unscientific use of minerals should be discouraged to avoid potential negative effects. Frank Tumwebaze, minister of agriculture of Uganda, noted the importance of balancing organic and mineral fertilizers from all nutrient sources through an integrated fertilizer management system, a concept advocated by agronomists worldwide for decades. Organic sources of fertilizer alone cannot give crops the nutrients they need for optimal growth due to organic sources’ low nutrient concentration, product bulkiness, and increased costs. Moreover, IFDC scientists estimate that the availability of organic manures or fertilizers is limited and can potentially support less than 10% of arable land. This limitation is intensified due to alternative uses of organic materials such as for fodder, fuel, etc. Additionally, it is crucial to understand that the nutrient release pattern from organic sources does not always align well with crop requirements. Some nutrients become immediately available, while others depend on the mineralization of organic matter, influenced by local climate. It is also important to note that improper use of organic fertilizers can also cause ecological, environmental, and human health issues. While biofertilizers are intriguing, the microbes that enhance nutrient availability are yet to be fully developed and require overcoming bottlenecks such as unpredictable results, limited scale of production, cost, storage, transportation, ease of use, and acclimatization to a given environment. The better path forward involves a multipronged approach. First, expanding soil testing and advisory services to provide farmers with data-driven fertilizer guidance tailored to their specific fields. Second, bolstering training programs to enhance farmers' knowledge of optimal nutrient management practices. And third, developing enabling policies and market reforms to improve affordable access to appropriate fertilizers. Initiatives such as IFDC's USAID-funded Space to Place program exemplify this comprehensive strategy, demonstrating how localized fertilizer recommendations can boost nutrient use efficiency, increase yields, and reduce environmental impacts. Many African soils are very low in organic matter, which is a reason for the low response to fertilizers of all types. That’s why IFDC and our partners promote the adoption of conservation agricultural practices, including organic manures, as necessary. Long-standing advocacy exists for implementing conservation practices to maintain soil and ecological health. Combining these practices with an integrated fertilizer management system creates long-term sustainability of crop yields and resilience to climate change. Many scientists, industries, and organizations, including IFDC, are working on developing organo-mineral fertilizers. These can reduce potential negative effects from overuse of inorganic fertilizers, the lack of adoption of other conservative agricultural practices, and recycling of nutrients. Organo-mineral fertilizers combine the benefits of organic and inorganic fertilizers while reducing undesired effects. To achieve the AFSH targets, scientific evidence-based enabling policies and a regulatory framework for better access, affordability, and recommendation of fertilizers along with incentivization for adoption of good agricultural practices are most important.