AGRA

Essong’olo village, in the heart of Vihiga County, is just like any other hamlet, with most households engaging in subsistence farming.

Isaiah Bitoolo is one of the residents of this village and, like many of his neighbours, he keeps a herd of five indigenous cattle in a makeshift zero-grazing unit.

Years ago, zero-grazing of such animals was unheard-of in the village as the animals grazed in a free-range style along the rural roads, in open fields and along riverbanks.

“Things are changing fast,” says the 44-year-old farmer. “I was forced to zero-graze the animals because for the better part of this year, there was little grass in the fields where we used to graze them due to little rains. Most of the fields have also been cultivated, fenced off or built up and some of the rivers have dried up, leaving us with no option,” he said.

To manage the new way of keeping his animals, the farmer has been forced to spare at least one of the two-and-a-half acres he owns for farming napier grass.

“For the first time in my life, I am budgeting for my animals,” said Bitoolo

The smallholder farmer is among hundreds who are feeling the heat as climate change ravages the country. And the farmers are adapting to the change in various ways.

Jemimah Keng’wa, a farmer in Esilongo in Vihiga, says she was forced to ditch cane farming for vegetables.

For many years, Keng’wa grew on her three-acre farm sugarcane (Yellow gal and Georgia red varieties), which are usually soft, with fibres that stick together, which makes them ideal for chewing.

This agribusiness attracted customers from distant villages who visited her farm to buy cane and sell on roadsides.
“The canes no longer thrive the way they used to because the climatic conditions are no longer the same.”

Jemimah has now settled for vegetable farming, which is time-consuming and requires more care than cane. “I had to settle for this because it is the most appropriate agribusiness since the vegetables mature future,” she said.

RAIN-FED AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

John Macharia, the country manager for Kenya at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), says many smallholder farmers have responded to climate change and variability by diversifying into the horticulture value chain.

“Horticulture presents an opportunity for shorter cash cycles, and this is what farmers are turning to as a way of coping with the ever-increasing climate stress,” he told the Seeds of Gold.

The emergence of new pests and diseases is also a huge setback for smallholders. “Unlike what we used to do, I no longer buy any maize seed because it is a planting season,” said Philemon Echoka, a smallholder farmer from Nangili in Kitale.

“I have to know whether or not the seed I am buying is tolerant to fall army worms,” he said, noting that fighting the pest is one of the biggest struggles in his farming career.

Scientists have pointed out that the worms are affected by climatic factors, and that climate change may affect geographical range, growth rate, abundance, survival, mortality, number of generations per year and other characteristics.

In other parts of the country, many farmers have adopted low tillage farming system as a way of coping with new climatic conditions. However, this is not a new thing.

It has been increasingly popular around the world especially after World War II – and similar no-plough systems were the basis for much ancient agriculture, before the modern plough was invented.

According to the World Bank, about 98 per cent of Kenya’s agricultural systems are rain-fed and highly susceptible to climate change and variability.

“Adoption of climate-smart practices can help mitigate the impact of climate change and ensure predictability in yields for the farmers,” said Parmesh Shah, Global Lead for Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Jobs at the World Bank Group.
Macharia notes it cannot be business as usual for farmers.

“All smallholder farmers must diversify their diets, grow crops that respond well to prevailing climatic conditions, make good use of weather and climate information services, and learn to make use of technologies and techniques that may help them cope with the changing climatic conditions,” he said.

Originally published on The Nation

Stepped up and concerted actions are needed in Africa if the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger and the more ambitious Malabo hunger target are to be met. The Malabo Declaration, adopted by African Union member states in 2014, calls for the intensification of collective efforts towards the eradication of hunger and malnutrition by 2025.

The Sustainable Development Goals, adopted globally in 2015, aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. According to FAO and other institutions, evidence shows the African continent is not on track to meet these commitments. Fiona Mbabazi caught up with the President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa( AGRA) Dr. Agnes Kalibata and this is what she had to say on the matter.

Without changing the approach towards the efforts to end hunger, Africa risks remaining as the only continent struggling with hunger in 2030.

This is the view from most experts who attended the launch of the 2020 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF 2020).

The Forum, due to take place in September next year in Kigali was launched yesterday.

Expert worry that Africa could still be importing a significant amounts of food by 2030.

Considered as the world’s leading Forum for advancing Africa’s agricultural agenda, AGRF is expected to attract a record 4,000 participants, according to its organisers.

Hailemariam Desalegn, AGRF Partners Group Chair and former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, said that eliminating hunger on the continent is being undermined by high population growth and climate change.

“Business and progress as usual is not enough for Africa’s aspirations. Without a change of approach and change of pace, Africa stands to be the only continent struggling with hunger in 2030,” Desalegn said.

“In order to achieve our aspirations laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa’s Agenda 2063, we must ensure we drive agriculture transformation at the heart of our economic transformation.”

Africa has highest prevalence of undernourishment, at 20 per cent of its population, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Rwanda’s Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente highlighted some key points that Africa should focus on in order to develop the agriculture sector.

“Our African countries need to keep putting emphasis on extension services. This should be done using appropriate approaches such as deployment of skilled extension personnel in farming areas to work with farmers, using farmer to farmer extension services, youth service providers,” he said.

This linkage between research, extension and farmers, he added, will speed up agricultural transformation on our continent.

Ngirente said the agriculture sector in Africa is mostly dominated by an ageing population because it remains unattractive to the young generation as a business.

“To attract them into agriculture, there is need to de-risk this sector so as to attract investments and continue empowering youth and other farmers to use technologies that make agriculture a competitive and profitable business,” he said.

Furthermore, he said; “African Governments have to ensure farmers timely access to agriculture inputs, especially improved seeds and fertilisers.”

He noted Rwanda is honoured to be selected as the host of AGRF 2020.

“Rwanda is fully committed to driving a comprehensive agricultural transformation at the heart of our economic transformation. This is emphasized in our strategic plan for agriculture transformation, which was launched last year,” the Premier said.

Dr Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and host of the independent AGRF Secretariat, said; “Working together, we can ensure the policies, programmes, and investments that will transform the lives of millions of smallholder farmers, grow African businesses, and put a good number of countries on the path to a sustainable agricultural transformation.”

Kalibata said facts show that all countries that managed to develop started with significantly investing in and boosting their agriculture sector.

According to information from the African Development Bank, Africa’s annual food import bill is estimated at $35 billion and is projected to rise to $110 billion by 2025 if the status quo remains.

The Bank argues that this situation weakens African economies, decimates its agriculture and exports jobs from the continent.

In Mozambique, the National Investment Plan for the Agrarian Sector (PNISA) has stated its vision: to develop “a prosperous, competitive, equitable and sustainable agricultural sector”. It seeks to identify and prioritize key investment and policy interventions that are critical to enhancing the desired agricultural productivity growth in Mozambique. However, investments have been inadequate in seed production, input production and distribution, mechanization research and extension, irrigation and water management, processing.

On the other hand, different Chinese state actors and private sector players have been engaged and invested in Mozambique in a variety of sectors from rice to horticulture, in different value chain stages from production to primary and secondary processing. However, the increased China-Mozambique agricultural cooperation has also been subject to considerable debate. There is huge untapped potential in leveraging Chinese investment to promote agricultural transformation and modernization.

Iringa, Tanzania: Magreth Aidan Sanga is a Hub agro-input dealer based in Iringa, a town in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands where she trades as Iwawa General Supplies.  In business for the past 11 years, Magreth’s best-selling inputs are seed and fertilizer.

The majority of her over 10,000 direct customers are smallholder farmers within Iringa and Njombe regions. Indirectly, she also sells to hundreds of others through an agency system. They hold the key to a sustained green revolution.

According to AGRA’s head of policy and advocacy, Boaz Keizire, agro-dealers and their agents play a big role in agricultural development and transformation by giving farmers access to quality inputs and market information.  “The winners are the smallholder farmers,” he says, “thanks to the reduction in distances covered to access agricultural inputs and to receive timely market information.”

Magreth is a beneficiary of the Hub Agro-dealers Training event in October 2018, organized by PIATA Tija Project with the support of AGRA, where she met seven other agro-dealers for experience- sharing and collaboration. Armed with new knowledge she embarked on expanding her business and recruiting agents. 

Since 2017, PIATA Tija Project has gained traction among smallholder farmers and agribusinesses in Tanzania by promoting a shift to productive and profitable agriculture that creates food security and expanded economic opportunities. The Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA) is a five-year engagement led by AGRA, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID.  Tanzania is one of 11 countries under the Partnership. 

Although she has eight agents spread across villages in Iringa, each serving several hamlets, Magreth’s business challenges are two-pronged and closely related. “In order to increase the number of agents, I will need to increase my capital base for input purchases and upgrade my warehouse capacity,” she explains. She also lends inputs to the smaller agents as a way of adding to their capacity and growth.

Zabibu Magava, an inputs distributor based at Italula village in Iringa serves over 700 customers. She receives most of her inputs from Magreth on credit terms.  “The idea was to bring the inputs closer to the farmers and Iwawa General Supplies has made this possible,” she observes. 

With improved distribution channels, agents like Zabibu are counting increased business opportunities and higher incomes as a result.

Iwawa General Supplies is a distributer for more than seven firms dealing with inputs and post-harvest technologies such as tarpaulins and hermetic Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags. They include Yara Tanzania, Meru Agro, Staco, Premium and Kibo Seeds as well as post-harvest technology manufacturers A to Z, PPTL and Panner.

Magreth is tuned in to the agribusiness potential within an expanding customer base, leading her to improve the management of her company by professionalizing it.  

“With more farmers assured of markets for their produce, they are always motivated to improve and make more money and I have learned that I cannot reach my goals if I work alone,” she adds. “Partnerships, the AGRA way help businesses like mine to grow and working with agents has opened up new frontiers for my business.”

Such business models play a critical role in ensuring food security targets are met and transform agriculture into profitable ventures. Stella Rwiza, AGRA’s Southern Highland Zone Country Program Officer recognizes Iwawa General Suppliers as one of PIATA Tija’s pivotal partners. “They have participated in all the exhibitions organized within Iringa and were instrumental in supporting farmers with extension services,” she adds.

In the 2018/19 season, the company set up 10 demonstration plots in Iringa and Kilolo Districts, giving farmers a first-hand opportunity to learn how to enhance production.

“My greatest moment is seeing smallholder farmers in the Southern Highlands transform their farms into profitable business units that bring in the profits,” says Magreth.

By Anthony Muchoki

Anchored within the Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA) led by AGRA, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID, the PIATA Tija Project promotes a shift to productive and profitable agriculture that creates food security and expanded economic opportunities.  

With a marked demand for improved seed, fertilizer and the adoption of good agricultural practices, farmers in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands are transitioning from subsistence practices to productive enterprises  that guarantee a commercial value beyond food security. However, smallholder farmers yearn for support through the provision of multiple services that promote both on- and off-farm activities and businesses through the provision of multiple services among them, input provision, production, storage and distribution, transportation, processing and marketing.

After attending a seminar organized by AGRA in 2018, Mama Christina Metusala Mhema needed no further persuasion to invest in farm inputs and post-harvest technologies. She owns an 8-acre (3.2 hectares) piece of land, most of it under maize. The harvest in the 2019 season was over and above her expectations, creating a demand for post-harvest storage solutions.

“My biggest challenge after meeting mine and my relative’s financial needs from the farm surplus was how to store the maize surplus,” recalls the widowed mother. “The PICS bags were in demand by farmers but many found the cost prohibitive.

In August 2019, when AGRA President Dr. Agnes Kalibata visited her home storage facility in Iringa, southern Tanzania, Mama Christina made a request to Dr. Kalibata to bring down the cost of post-harvest technologies like the PICS bag in order to encourage mass adoption by small-scale farmers like herself.

According to Mama Christina, PICS bags are the preferred storage method by nearly everyone in her village. “I wish I could store all my maize in them, but the cost is on the higher side at Tsh 5000 per piece, while the cost of the woven bag is as low as Tsh 1000, she says.

The acronym PICS stands for Purdue Improved Crop Storage. Developed in 2007 with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they were originally designed for storing cowpeas.  Today they are used to store maize, beans, and pulses.

Prof. Nuhu Hatibu, AGRA Regional Head (Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda), says research has proved that overall, maize stored in pics bags shows no signs of deterioration unlike in the woven bags.

“PICS provides an airtight seal for long-term pest-free storage,” he adds. The bags are an effective alternative to chemical pesticides for stored grain. They consist of two liners of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and an outer layer of woven polypropylene.

AGRA with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, first introduced three portable storage solutions in Iringa and Njombe in 2014 to mitigate post-harvest losses – these were cocoons, metal silos, and hermatic bags (PICS and AgroZ bags).

In the same year, Tanzania, especially the southern highlands registered a bumper harvest for maize and storage was a challenge. Huge consignments of maize were stored outside houses and in some cases even under trees.

The portable storage solutions were supported by AGRA to provide short term storage needs for smallholder farmers and both the private and public sectors were involved to make the program work at a commercial level for sustainability.

Some of the companies in Tanzania that partnered with AGRA at the time to manufacture modern storage bags included PeePee Tanzania Limited (PICS bags) and A to Z Textile Mills (Agro Z hermetic bags);

Mr. Ladislaus Ngingo, a senior official at PeePee Tanzania Limited, notes that notwistanding that PICS bags were new to the market, by the end of 2015, the company had sold about 300,000 pieces.

“The uptake by the end of 2017 had increased to a million bags within Tanzania. In 2018 we sold over a million bags and a further one million exports,” he notes. “The business is highly viable.”

In Iringa, the pricing has remained stable at Tsh 5000 due to the presence of established agro -dealers with established supply chains. In other regions, the bags sometimes are price even higher- at Tsh 6000 -Tsh 8000.

“The challenge is reaching the end-users at an affordable cost. Tanzania is geographically vast and the cost of supplying to remote villages is on the higher side,” he notes.  

Those who buy from the company at wholesale prices, use a great deal of time and money at before they reach the end-users, hence the high price passed on to smallholder farmers.

This can be solved by having more agro-dealers selling the item closer to the people.

“In Iringa Region, hermetic bags sales have been on a steady increase despite farmer demands for the prices to be reviewed downward notes Magreth Aidan Sanga, an agro-input dealer based in Iringa Town.

By Anthony Muchoki

After 17 years of political processes, advocating by governmental and non governmental organizations and business entities with different interests, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has finally signed the National Fertilizer Quality Control Act into law on 16 October 2019, and AGRA is proud to have catalyzed the process.

The Bill, whose drafting began in 2002 when farmers pressurized the Federal Government of Nigeria to establish an agency for fertilizer regulation and control has since gone through several stages as required by the law, the President’s desk in 2004. However, it died on arrival because the government did not have appetite to create new agencies, despite several fake fertilizers curtails that rocked the country by then.

It was later revived in 2012. Three years later, AGRA engaged the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) to intensify the advocacy and sensitization. The draft Fertilizer Bill reached first and second reading stages of National Assembly in 2014 but it was not enacted into law.

The Fertilizer Quality control bill went in the House of Representatives through first reading on 10 December 2015, second reading on 19 January 2016 and third reading and passage on 2 June 2016.  The House of Representatives passed the Bill to Senate but it took almost another nine months for Senate to pass it for first reading.

The Fertilizer Quality Control Bill went through first reading in the senate on the 22 March 2017 and was listed by the Committee on Rules and Business for second reading four times from June to July 2017.

The Fertilizer Quality Control Bill in the Senate successfully went through second reading in the Senate on 27 September 2017 and Committee Stage Public hearing on 14 November 2017. The Bill was finally laid on Tuesday 17 July 2018 but it was not approved. Senate members suggested an amendment to the section on penalties for defaulters.

At this stage, AGRA complemented its previous design support and invested in advocacy, sensitization and awareness creation with focus on the value of the Bill, informing the public of how important it was to smallholder farmers, the private sector and the whole agricultural sector in Nigeria.

The President signed the National Fertilizer Quality Control Act into law on October 16, 2019.

Advocacy was done in all the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria and also through mainstream and social media platforms. This raised the profile of the Bill, for members of the public to be able to engage with their parliamentarians, to make them understand the value of this Bill and why it needed to be passed.

Dr Joseph Rusike a Senior Program Officer for Policy and Advocacy at AGRA gave his reflections on the Bill, moments after the President’s signature. Below are his excerpts.

 Q. How important is this Bill for Nigeria?

A.The Bill is extremely important because it provides a legal foundation for setting up a competitive fertilizer industry that can supply farmers with quality products at affordable prices.

The reason is that in the market, the fertilizer sellers may be tempted to sell counterfeit or fake products as fertilizers. At the point of purchase farmers have no means to know whether what they are buying is genuine or fake. If a farmer buys such products, it can only be later in the season that they will realize that they bought fake products.

In such an event, the farmer will definitely get poor yields because they have lost the opportunity time. Using this Bill, such unscrupulous traders will be rooted out and prosecuted, imprisoned or fined.

If you look at the development of agriculture in any given country, it is dependent on farmers buying and using products that offer the benefits that the sellers claim the product will provide.

So the law is particularly useful in reducing the counterfeit or fake fertilizers and therefore protects the farmers and everyone in the fertilizer supply chain, including fertilizer manufacturers, blenders, distributers, agro-dealers among others.

Q. How rampant is fertilizer counterfeiting in Africa?

A. Studies have been done in a number of African countries and they show that the problem is endemic and rampant on the continent.

So what we need is control measures and standards for example, before the fertilizers are sold, we must know the composition of Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, moisture content, and the fertilizers must not have heavy metals that can lead to health complications.

Q. What role did AGRA play to influence the passing of the legislation?

A.AGRA provided technical assistance and backstopping in form of a grant to government and private sector organizations to help with the process of generating the evidence so as to achieve the consensus; that there was an urgent need for the law.

Secondly, AGRA looked at policy options that were available to the government, so as to do a technical economic impact assessment in order to identify the best solutions that the government could pursue. We also looked at the legal analysis to make sure that the proposed legislation is consistent with the laws of the country and other regionaltreaties that Nigeria is a signatory to.

Q. What challenges did the Bill encounter before it was signed into law?

A.The Bill had to deal with the political economy of the country. There were several organizations that were involved in the fertilizer regulation. Some of them stood to win, and others stood to lose from the reforms. So, some of these organizations could sponsor Bills to go through the House of Representatives secretly without knowledge of other players.

The other challenge is that the Bill got caught up in a political quagmire as the country was going through electoral reform process.

Q. What lessons did AGRA learn from this process?

A.One major lesson is that there is always need to have technical analysis of the issues and legal analysis that is politically neutral and unbiased. Providing that in a timely fashion to the decision making process is what we really need in order to shield the process of making laws from political manipulations and interests of parties.

Q. Do you think the law will be fully implemented to protect farmers in Nigeria?

A.In this particular case, immediately the process of drafting the Bill started, the process of making regulations to operationalize the Bill also began. This involved increasing awareness by key stakeholders and the audit of institutions that were mandated to implement the Bill.

And now that the Bill has been signed into law, the regulations will be reviewed at national stakeholder meetings after which they will be endorsed and presented to the minister of agriculture for signing.

Q. What does this achievement mean for AGRA

A. It was a learning process and in particular, we feel it has catalyzed a process in which the benefits of the reform process far exceed the cost. These lessons can be transferred to other countries. For example, work is now starting in Kenya about supporting the implementation of the recently amended fertilizer Act throughsetting up of a Fertilizer Regulatory Board, and the regulations to operationalize the Act.

We need to strengthen these legal underpinnings of the fertilizer industry in all African countries so as to achieve a green revolution on the continent.

We also need to understand that it was not just AGRA. The success should also be attributed to unwavering support and collaboration with partners, not limited to Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA). This is a unique strategic partnership launched in 2017 that enables African agriculture actors to do business differently as they support leaders to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation.

PIATA members include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, BMZ.

Strive Masiyiwa, founder and chairman of the Econet group, a pan-African telecommunications, media and technology company, shares his views on agriculture in Africa in this exclusive opinion piece after stepping down from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) board in September. 

Today, 1.2 billion people reside in Africa, a figure set to quadruple by the end of the century. That will be nearly 5 billion mouths to feed; a monumental figure, but one that doesn’t frighten me. This is why: in 1957, the population of Africa was 250 million, less than a quarter of what it is today, and if our fathers were able to cope with that scale of growth, then I am convinced that we can too.  An  incredible rise in education and technological opportunities mean we have the necessary resources and are now the most educated generation in history.

We also live in the most peaceful period recent history. The blood shed of the Ghanaian coup in 1966, Idi Amin in Uganda and Mobutu in Zaire is all over, and since last year’s Eritrea – Ethiopia peace summit, there is no ongoing conflict between two African nations. This is very important for economic prosperity. It does not mean we don’t have conflict, but we don’t have  interstate conflict at present.

That said, we have emerging challenges to contend with. We are not immune to the radicalization in places like Somalia, Nigeria and the Sahel region that is not only disrupting social order but also causing massive population displacement.

Going back to agriculture, even more devastating is the global climate emergency. In March and April 2019, Cyclones Idai and Kenneth tore through south eastern Africa, leading to tremendous loss of life with many still unaccounted for; estimates indicate that 1.7 million people were affected. Today, 27 million people are facing acute food shortage in the horn of Africa and that number might grow to 47 million if nothing is done. I have been involved in the efforts to support those affected by the devastating effects of the cyclones and have witnessed their resilience. 

I am convinced, more than ever before, that agriculture will be at the heart of the continent’s journey towards inclusive economic growth, affording our people a decent living and continuing to build their resilience to shock. Never again shall we see suffering on the scale of Ethiopia’s mass starvation in the 80s where close to 8 million people became famine victims, and over 1 million died. This transformation has been ushered in by focused and intentional investment in Ethiopia’s agricultural sector. 

This is why, despite having no background in agriculture, I joined other leaders to set up the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) about 15 years ago.

This September, I stepped down as chair of the AGRA Board. Taking stock of our progress, the journey so far has been one of impressive results, positive impacts and fruitful collaborations. AGRA has played a role in giving over 22 million  farmers in 18 African countries access to improved seed varieties that have doubled and sometimes tripled yields. These are farmers, 70% of Africa’s population, who own less than 5 hectares of land. This has been made possible through the establishment of over 110 small, African owned seed companies  that have produced around 800,000 MT of seeds. This is all the more impressive considering when we started, only three countries in sub-Saharan Africa were able to produce seed through less than 10 seed companies. Farmers now have easy access, not just to seed, but other inputs through the network of village shops that AGRA and partners have helped to establish. As a result, the average distance traveled by farmers in search of inputs has reduced from 60km in 2006 to 10km today, and in Kenya it is as low as 4km. Markets have also been opened up for farmers to sell their produce resulting in increased incomes and improved livelihoods. The private sector has become increasingly engaged. The results have been tremendous – reduced poverty, general economic growth and better nutrition. 

I am truly grateful to African governments that accepted the challenge to prioritize agriculture. I am also grateful to partners that joined us in this endeavor and entrusted us with their resources. These include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and many others. We would not have reached 22 million farmers without your support.

The capacity to produce food is no longer the fundamental problem, as the tools for this are now generally accepted. From the day I started as the Chair of the Board of AGRA, I have never doubted that we would declare full food sufficiency by 2030. The challenge now is to produce this food sustainably and in a way that generates prosperity and healthy jobs for our people and looks after the environment keeping our soils fertile and productive. We will not be able to build wealth for all through agriculture, and migration to cities will continue unabated unless we re-imagine our rural communities in a way that allows the next generation to aspire to a life at the sharp end of agriculture.

Technology is the way to achieve that, and as someone firmly rooted in that world, the most rewarding part of my work at AGRA has been leveraging fast-growing technological innovations to help transform people’s lives in Africa. Who would have thought, ten years ago, that using drones to deliver services to smallholder farmers would be a reality in our lifetime?

Personally, I recently invested in a tech start-up that has created an Uber-like platform for tractors enabling farmers to link with a central database and order a tractor via SMS; the tractor arrives within 24 hours, paid for using mobile money, freeing the farmer from the drudgery of the hoe. This service is particularly valued by women farmers, enabling them to circumvent social norms that might otherwise hamper their ability to hire a tractor.

We need to continue to dream big to make sure these technological developments are used to their full capacity to make agriculture prosperous, and rural lives comfortable. We want people, especially young people, to move from the city back to working in agriculture and turn it into an industry, with brands that are globally competitive. They have the skills and energy; we just need to empower and support them.

Each generation has its battle; ours is to make sure that those on the front line of our farms are there by choice, not by lack of an alternative or because they were left behind trapped in subsistence farming, and this is the battle that AGRA and its dedicated staff and partners are waging. We are winning – today, only 20% of the food produced by smallholder farmers is for subsistence, the remaining 80% goes into national and regional markets. Agriculture is not only providing food; it is transforming the livelihoods of rural communities.

Nairobi, Kenya, November 2019 – Africa is rising, with prosperity and progress in the lives of millions of individuals and entire economies mostly powered by agriculture. But for all of the signs of progress, the African continent is largely food insecure with current yields of cereals and legumes at only 15–30 percent of the potential. This is despite its vast arable land, water and manpower resources.

This has contributed to the worsening food crisis with about 250 million people going to bed hungry and the continent spending more than $35 billion on food imports annually as it continues to grapple with low agricultural productivity.  

Although fertilizer use has marginally increased, many African soils are unable to supply crops with the nutrients they need due to infertility and degradation that has stemmed from inappropriate land-use practices over several centuries. A changing climate and booming populations have increased demands on Africa’s already overworked soils. For example, the intensively cultivated highlands in East Africa lose an estimated 36 kg nitrogen, 5 kg phosphorus, and 25 kg potassium per hectare every year.

The low level of soil fertility is a major crisis in Africa, reducing farmers’ livelihood, increasing hunger, and accelerating environmental breakdown.  This stems from a lack of knowledge about soil health, and low awareness of and investment in the production and use of appropriate fertiliser. 

Improving fertiliser use is critical to increasing agricultural productivity according to a new book launched today by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and its partners. The book – Feeding Africa’s Soils: Fertilisers to Support Africa’s Agricultural Transformation – finds that increasing targeted fertiliser application by 20 percent would, for example, raise yields of rice by 5.1 percent, wheat by 11 percent, and maize by 9.9 percent. Besides increasing productivity, this would permit 2 million hectares of currently cultivated land to be set aside for reforestation with great environmental benefits.

Speaking during the book launch, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Hon.  Mwangi Kiunjuri, stressed that African governments recognise the need to improve food security by investing in agriculture, adding that increasing fertiliser use is critical to increasing productivity and the likelihood of Africa being able to feed itself.

“Fertiliser is one of the critical factors of agricultural production. While Kenya is among the countries with better fertiliser application rates in Africa, we still have a long way to go. This book gives a sobering assessment of the progress we are making and offers great recommendations that we will implement to fast track action,” he said.

The book acknowledges the failings of past farming models elsewhere in the world that were powered by intensive fertiliser use with harmful environmental effects and calls for innovative approaches to fertiliser use that are tailored to Africa’s soil conditions and crop needs.

“Technologies now exist that enable us to produce and apply fertilisers judiciously and that address specific needs of soil and crops. These includes fertiliser blending and micro-dosing that ensures the production of soil specific nutrients and application to meet specific crop needs. This reduces cost to the farmer, reduces impact on the environment while increasing yield per hectare.   This is all critical given a changing climate,” said AGRA President, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, in her remarks at the book launch.

The continent’s demand for fertiliser is projected to grow by 8 percent annually to reach 5.5 million tonnes of nutrients, or 2.8 percent of world demand, by 2021. While the application of inorganic fertiliser is increasing across the continent, the usage in most countries is below the commitment made at the 2006 Abuja Fertiliser Summit of applying 50 kg of fertilizer nutrient per hectare of arable land against a global average of 150 kg fertilizer nutrient per hectare.

Although it’s well understood that organic fertilisers play an important role in improving soil fertility, they cannot on their own supply the required nutrients. Crop residues and manure contain relatively low levels of nutrients. For example, crop residues contain only up to 4.2 percent of the six primary and secondary nutrients, while poultry manure, the richest type of manure, has only up to 15 percent nutrients. This means that Africa cannot produce the food it needs by relying solely on organic fertilizer.  On the other hand, applied correctly, inorganic fertilisers offer a precise content of nutrients which is critical for intensive agricultural systems, allowing more produce from existing land under cultivation.

Key Recommendations

Governments are central to the success of fertiliser use in Africa: Governments play a critical role in the entire fertiliser value chain. They need to invest in key infrastructure ensuring that fertiliser gets to the farmers at affordable price. They are required to formulate policies creating an enabling environment for the private sector as well as develop the regulatory frameworks for quality assurance taking advantage of existing continental and regional entities, including the newly signed African Continental Free Trade Area.  They should improve and re-design current input subsidies to ensure they address challenges that have led to market failures but also ensure they do not incentivise bad behaviour that would adversely impact the environment.

Private Sector is critical for a sustainable fertilizer supply chain: The private sector such as fertiliser producers, industry associations, importers, distributors and dealers form an important part of the fertiliser system. For example, the involvement of agro-dealers has significantly reduced the distance farmers have to travel to access inputs as we have seen in countries like Kenya where the distance has been reduced by half from 8.4 km in 1997 to 4 km in 2017. A strong private sector could create a favorable environment for fertilizer quality control.

Innovative and sustainable approaches to fertiliser application are needed: The book acknowledges that fertiliser use, if not managed properly, can have harmful effects on the environment. It recommends moving away from blanket fertiliser application to innovative approaches like fertiliser blending and micro-dosing that ensure the production of soil specific nutrients and application to meet the crop needs. It also calls for the integration of organic and inorganic fertilisers along with soil amendments such as lime and bio- stimulants to improve nutrient use efficiency.

Farmers need to be trained on appropriate fertiliser use for optimum results: Efforts should be made, including through extension workers, to train farmers on what types of fertilizers are available and how to use them appropriately. Tools such as the “4Rs” of nutrient stewardship (right source of fertilizer, right rate,  right time and right place) should be emphasized during farmer training. Fertilizer use must be guided by soil tests and mapping to ensure the right types and quantities are recommended. 

Financing gap remains: Developing proactive and effective high-level financial arrangements and mechanisms is key to increasing production and procurement capacity in Africa. Technical assistance should be provided to entrepreneurs, smallholder groups and financial service providers to improve the provision of financing to the fertiliser value chain, as well as farmers’ and agrodealers’ ability to access the funds available. Financing for farmers and agro-dealers should take advantage of digital technologies.

Download the Book Feeding Africa’s Soils: Fertilisers to Support Africa’s Agricultural Transformation

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For more information, please contact: Waiganjo Njoroge, AGRA Interim Head of Communication at wnjoroge@agra.org or Tel.:3 +254 723 857 270

About AGRA

Established in 2006, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is an African-led and Africa-based institution that puts smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives. 

Together with our partners, we catalyse and sustain inclusive agriculture transformation to increase the incomes and improve food security for 30 million farming households in 11 African countries by 2021.

We all know the statistics: 25% of Kenya’s GDP comes from agriculture, 50% of Kenya’s export income derives from agriculture and 75% of the agricultural output is produced by farmers holding less than 3 acres of land. In other words, farmers are the backbone of the Kenyan economy, not only as producers but more and more as consumers. However, as we sit here today less than 4% of commercial lending goes to agriculture and public spending on agriculture ranges between 3 to 6% of the budget. While small holder farmers are key in growing the Kenyan economy, financial services hardly reach them. Therefore it stands to reason that if we want to get real about supporting the agricultural sector financial inclusion of small farmers should be a top priority as part of Kenya’s Big Four agenda.

When it comes to small holder farmers what do we mean by financial inclusion? Many people, especially those working in the financial sector, would immediately say: agricultural loans are too risky: farmers default on their loans because of drought, pests, low prices or many of the other problems that farmers have to deal with. And it is true, the business of farming knows many risks, so do we want to add another risk, the risk of default, to the farmer’s life? In other words do farmers need loans? The answer might not be as obvious as you think.

For a farmer to produce, she needs seeds, fertilizers, tractor services and crop protection products, plus the advisory services that allows her to make good use of the inputs and get a crop that is marketable. Because when products are sold, farmers get the income that can be re-invested in the next cycle.

So who should be funding agricultural production? My answer is everyone that derives the benefit of that agricultural production: so apart from farmers these are also the seed companies, agrodealers, fertilizer companies, aggregators and processors. Together they should make sure that farmers have what they need to produce: inputs can be sold on credit and processors can give inputs on credit to secure supply; the larger the company the less issues they have to obtain financing from a financial institution. Farmers will invest their saved income from the last season andmight need an agricultural insurance to make sure they can deliver on their commitments to the input companies and off takers.

For this to work financial inclusion is important. Not for farmers to get credit but rather for farmers to be able to transact in a convenient, affordable and nearby manner. So what does financial inclusion mean for farmers? Firstly to have an account which is free, with no minimum balance, accessible through their phone and for which cash in and cash out services are within 5 kilometers distance. Secondly, this account should insure farmers automatically qualify for health services (NHIF) and optionally for production risks. Thirdly, if farmers are paid in that account, they qualify automatically for some overdraft to iron out their irregular cash flows. This overdraft will have a reasonable interest and be flexible in terms of repayment (not the Mshwari and Tala more than 100% type of interest).

This sounds easy enough with a huge potential market, yet it is not happening. It requires smart partnerships between those benefitting from more agricultural production and patient investments in designing and deploying financial services that make farmers more resilient. These payment, insurance and overdraft services will make farmers known to financial institutions which is key in reducing risk and cost of providing loans to farmers who have the ambition and ability to grow. So first things first: cheap, easy and relevant accounts for farmers, risk sharing in financing agricultural production and financial inclusion of farmers is on track.