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AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Food Security Requires Increased Fertiliser Use

Wambi Michael

KAMPALA, Mar 6 2009 (IPS) - A mix of organic and inorganic fertilisers, together with good seed could help Africa to replenish depleted soils and to grow more food in the fight against hunger and food insufficiency.

A study by U.S.-based International Center For Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development indicates that fertiliser use in Africa is on average less than ten percent of that in Asia, offering one explanation for why production of of important food crops such as cereals, tubers and legumes has stagnated or declined.

The study, titled “Soil Nutrient mining in Africa,” said agricultural production in much of Africa is also hampered by the predominance of fragile ecosystems, low inherited soil fertility and low use of modern inputs such as mineral fertiliser and improved crop varieties.

According to the report, farmers in Africa have traditionally cleared land, grown a few crops then moved on to clear more land leaving the fallow land to regain fertility. But population pressure now forces farmers to grow crop after crop, “mining” or depleting the soil’s nutrients while giving nothing back. With little access to fertilisers, the farmers are forced to bring the less fertile soil on marginal land in production.

High cost, poor distribution systems and lack of manufacturing capacity has compounded the problem in countries like Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, and Angola. Fertiliser consumption in Africa continues to be largely restricted to a few countries, chiefly Egypt, South Africa and Morocco.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that unless the nearly 70 million smallholder families in sub-Saharan Africa apply fertilisers and start practicing sustainable land and water management on their farms within the next decade, they “will seriously jeopardise their long-term food security, productivity and incomes, while environmental degradation will accelerate”.

FAO recommended that average fertiliser application rates in sub-Saharan Africa increase up to from a current average of 16 kg per hectare to 23kg/ha within the next decade to prevent loss of nutrients in the soil and resultant low productivity, but few farmers in Africa can afford them.

In the Ugandan capital Kampala, Tony Odonga, a fertiliser merchant, told IPS that “a number of people are not using fertilisers because of there is too much price fluctuations cost. The price has risen so highly because few months a go were selling a bag of fertilizers at forty eight thousand shillings ($25) for a fifty kilo bag but now we are selling at one hundred and twenty five thousand shillings ($65) a bag which is scaring a farmer when you tell the price they just turn and go.”

Jimmy Katerega, a farmer from Lake Victoria’s Kalangala Island confirmed that “the cost is too high but we need the fertilisers because scientists have told us that our soils in Kalangala lacking three main components nutrients like phosphorous, calcium and magnesium yet they are rich in nitrogen. If we don’t use them then we shall not get the expected yields,” he said.

Matsiko James, a farmer from Uganda’s Kanungu district said, “I use natural fertilisers because the inorganic fertilisers are expensive and also it is not cost effective because you will not recover the cost. If you are using mechanized agriculture where by you are using much land then the inorganic them you will need fertilisers.”

But Pedro Sanchez, the Director of tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment, asserted that Ugandan soils have been depleted and need to be replenished if food production is to increase.

“The reason why people say soil is fertile is because they see green. But every thing is green here because in the forests, nutrients are recycled he soils. So indeed it is fertile when you don’t take anything out. But when you begin to crop it and take nutrients out then you realize that seventy percent of Ugandan soil is infertile,” he said.

In Uganda, farmers have been relying on farm yard manure to add nutrients in the soils but Dr. Bashir Jama Director of Soil Health Program at Alliance for Green Revolution (AGRA) said this is not sustainable in the long run with increasing population.

“What happens in Uganda is that the soils are depleted of nutrients. They no longer have that capacity to rely on manure alone. I think it is very unlikely that one could have successful organic farming if you start with nutrient depleted soil.”

He said farmers have not been adding back the nutrients into the soil for too long. “It is like a bank account. If you draw the account to zero you will not produce crops.”

The use of inorganic fertilisers in Africa has been discouraged by ‘organic and environmental groups pushing to access markets in Europe and the United States. In Uganda the National Organic Agricultural Movement in Uganda (NOGAMU) It has a wide network of farmers mobilised to use only organic fertiliser.

NOGAMU Executive Director, Moses Muwanga told IPS that the push for a mix of organic and inorganic fertilisers was aimed at bringing chemical fertilisers in through a back door.

“It will not work this is just another form of marketing inorganic fertilisers. We have been clear on these mineral fertilisers. It will affect our soils, ruin the markets and pollute the lakes and rivers with toxins,” he said.

Food and Agricultural Organisation country representative in Uganda, Percy Misika said his agency supports the use of organic fertilisers but is also of the view that “organic alone can not feed six billion people today and nine billion by 2050 without inorganic fertilisers.”

Jama said that generally farmers have not been using the fertilisers because of cost but their use could be scaled-up by subsidising them.

“The farmers can not afford the fertilisers because the prices are very high. So fertilisers have to be financed either as smart subsidies like Malawi has done or farmers who can get into credit systems. But fertilisers have to go with good seed.

“What we are advocating for is the wise use of fertilisers whether organic or inorganic. The idea is to be ahead of the game and to be able to produce enough food and to do so in a way that is environmentally sustainable let soil fertility not run down and let us have enough food on the table,” he said.