AGRA

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

–END–

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.

The interim, Vice President, Seed Research & Systems Development at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Dr. George Bigirwa, has said there is need to support small holder farmers in the region to access markets so as to reduce poverty levels in the East African Community member states.

Dr. Bigirwa noted that research organizations continue releasing improved crop varieties and technologies, yet uptake by the majority of farmers remains low because of the markets constraint. The result is that they cannot adopt these new innovations and technologies as well as improved crop varieties for fear of wasting their efforts.

“Technologies that will increase production have been developed and even shared among farmers, but we know that those technologies can only benefit small holder farmers if there is ready market. That is the main hindrance to increased production and farmers’ incomes,” said Dr. Bigirwa.

AGRA has supported the development of improved technologies like seed in Uganda and the harmonization processes within East African Community member states for such technologies to be accessed by the farmers.

Dr. Bigirwa, who visited the Ministry of East African Community Affairs recently, said the member states should also play their role in helping their small holder farmers to access bigger markets.

He had led a team of AGRA officials to Uganda to assess the impact of the Regional East African Community Trade in Staples Project (REACTS) II Project, which AGRA funds. The three-year project which started last year May is implemented Kilimo Trust Uganda.

He explained that with ready markets, small holder farmers would sell more produce and expand their enterprises, thus solving household poverty.

“With assured markets, and improved technologies, we can easily improve their incomes and food security. It is along those lines that AGRA agreed to support the REACTS project because we know that one of the key bottlenecks is to do with markets,” he added.

In Uganda the project is supporting the maize and pulses value chains hoping to increase house old incomes by 20% for over 3 million small holder farmers and over 5% of other value chain actors, according to Dr. Birungi Korutaro, the Kilimo Trust country team leader.

“The support is in form of trainings on best farming practices, how to access storage and post-harvest handling technologies, financial literacy, use and access to quality agro inputs, links to off takers, links to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to ensure the produce meets standards needed when trading across the region and help in organizing farmer market days for some beneficiaries, among others,” she added.

According to Korutaro, about 105,000 farming households are expected to be integrated in input and output markets by the end of three years and 120,000 metric tons of produce traded across the region.

Quality of agric produce

Dr. Bigirwa noted that low standards with dirty and broken produce persist. He insisted that quality and standards must be observed for smooth trading in the region.

“Apart from contamination with aflatoxin, there are still quality issues like dirty grain because some farmers still don’t have proper drying facilities, discolored grain, broken grains which affect the quality of the final product,” he added.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of East African Community Affairs (MEACA), Edith Mwanja, commended the REACTS project saying it has helped some farmers improve. She said the government of Uganda has contributed $6.4million over a five year period and called for donor support to raise an addition of $1.2 million.

“We believe that in the next five years, there will be increased use of structured markets and more trade volumes in beans and maize that meet regional market standards. And I believe this will have improved the livelihoods of Ugandans in more than 25 districts,” Mwanja said.

A recent article in the appearing in one of Kenya’s dailies titled ‘Acidic soils deal blow to food security efforts’ painted a true picture of the soil health condition in some parts of the country.

However, it is important to note that soil health is just one of the aspects that determine crop yields. If a farmer plants low quality seed in healthy soils, then the yields will still disappoint.

Adoption of good agronomic practices and timing of the planting period based on the prevailing climatic conditions also determines the yields – particularly for farmers who rely on rainfall. Overall having assurance at the marketing end serves as a great incentive for farmers to uptake appropriate seeds, appropriate fertilizers, good agronomic practices and other technologies.

It therefore calls for an integrated approach of the above elements augmented with reliable weather and climate information services, and extension service provision to advise farmers on particular agronomical practices based on agroecological zones.

It is also important to note that as much as Kenyan soils are already ‘sick,’ there is a lot happening on the ground with various organizations working out solutions to the existing problems as Kenya walk towards a green revolution and self reliance.

In 2014 for example, with support from the World Bank and the European Union, the National Accelerated Agricultural Inputs Access Programme (NAAIAP) in collaboration with Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization (KALRO) and the Department of Kenya Soil Survey undertook a study to evaluate soil suitability for maize production in Kenya, where over 4000 soil samples were analyzed. One of the aims of this survey was to identify key soil fertility constraints so as to improve crop yield within the project areas, and to provide recommendations of most appropriate fertilizer formulation/blend for the cropping systems and soil fertility combinations.

As a result, there was no one all inclusive recommendation for Kenyan farmers. Different counties and sub-counties had different types of soils that required different forms of interventions to meet the crop nutrients demand for improved productivity.

Following these results, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) commissioned another study in 2018, which identified some key issues constraining the effectiveness of the Kenyan fertilizer system.

One of them was lack of awareness among smallholder famers about the availability of fertilizer blends in the market.

But even worse, the study reported inadequate knowledge and capacity among the fertilizer companies to manufacture appropriate balanced fertilizer blends and other soil amelioration inputs such as lime.

In addition, some of the lime producing companies continues to produce the powder form of lime while others have granulated lime all of which are of different quality and reactivity hence different application rates are recommended to farmers.

The study further found that some of the companies do not even have capacity to granulate the lime. There is also need to explore possibilities of blending the multi-nutrient fertilizers with the granulated lime to reduce labour costs for farmers.

Until recently, the country had relied predominantly on commodity fertilizers DAP, NPK, urea and CAN. These products take over 70 percent of the market share. They normally over-supply nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and limited amounts of potassium (K) – mostly for specialty crops, leaving the other crop micro-nutrients requirements unaddressed.

It is in this regard that AGRA has embarked on a capacity building initiative, using demo plots in 14 counties across the country, where the same crop is grown on different plots of land in the same place, but using different types of fertilizers and fertilizer blends for farmers and county officials to see the difference.

The organization is also trying to fine-tune and validate the emerging soil- and crop-specific fertilizer blends in support of enhanced and resilient maize, beans and potato production.

This is because most of fertilizer products in the Kenyan markets are produced without reference to soil nutrient status and crop needs. Consequently, they often oversupply some nutrients and under supply others. Such fertilizers fail to support the crop for higher yields while also leading to direct monetary losses in cases where inappropriate fertilizers are purchased and applied to the crops.

It is therefore through use of the right fertilizers/blends and lime on the right soils, with the right crop that Kenya will stagger from the abyss of food insecurity and sustainably feed her people.
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The author is AGRA’s country manager for Kenya. JMacharia@agra.org

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have pockets of food insecurity. These can appear and develop for many reasons. And in some cases, simple nature-based solutions can make a significant difference to people’s lives.

Vihiga County, western Kenya—one of the most densely populated of the country’s 47 counties with an average household farm size of 0.4 hectares is characterized by a high rate of population growth and dwindling farm sizes, and a land that is increasingly becoming uneconomical for farming. Pressure on land has led to a decline in food production and an increase in poverty. As a result, people are now moving into Kakamega rainforest in search of land for farming and settlement, causing severe destruction to the forest ecosystem.

To tackle these problems, the county government of Vihiga, in February 2017, decided to prioritize the commercialization of African indigenous vegetables to boost farmers’ incomes. Some 2,500 farmers have been recruited, in an exercise started in June 2018 to increase production of these vegetables.

Initial challenges included lack of quality seeds and training in best agronomic practices for sustainable, quality production.

However, things have been looking up since early 2018 when the initiative attracted technical and financial support from a Global Environment Facility-funded project, Scaling up Sustainable Land Management and Agro-Biodiversity Conservation to Reduce Environmental Degradation in Small Scale Agriculture in Western Kenya. The project—implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and executed by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization—runs until July 2022 and aims to set small-scale agriculture on the path to much greater sustainability, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on Land.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change describes sustainable land management as: “the stewardship and use of land resources, including soils, water, animals and plants, to meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions”.

Boosting incomes

Under the project, farmers have received training in best agronomic practices in eight sub-counties in Western Kenya, and a community-based seed production system has been established. There are currently 24 producer groups comprising 500 farmers, a majority of which are women, in Hamisi sub-county of Vihiga County. The project has contributed to yield increases from the initial 0.15 tonnes per hectare recorded in the first season of 2018, to 2.1 tonnes per hectare in June 2019, greatly improving farmers’ incomes.

Every and Everlyne Imasia attended training sessions on good crop husbandry, financial literacy, record keeping, land use planning, catchment rehabilitation and agroforestry systems, and now engage in sustainable land management practices such as mulching, crop rotation, composting, soil testing, planting agroforestry trees on boundaries and the use of terraces.

The area they planted with indigenous vegetables increased from 0.05 hectares to 0.10 hectares, and yields increased from 15 kg to 60 kg per season. Their income from African indigenous vegetables (including Ethiopian kale, African black night shade and cowpeas) increased from US$75 to US$500 in three seasons.

“I was never recognized by the community and the county executives but now I’m known in the whole of Muhudu ward as Baba Mboga [father of indigenous vegetables]… We have been able to pay utility bills and send our children to good schools,” says Every Imasia.

Under the project, some 450 farmers have visited his farm to learn about sustainable landscape management. Some 5,000 indigenous vegetable farmers have been selected in Vihiga County for training in these techniques to create jobs and boost food security. This is part of an anticipated 100,000 planned beneficiaries in Nandi, Kakamega and Vihiga counties over the project’s lifespan.

Priscillah Mbonne’s experience

Elsewhere in Vihiga County, communities have in some places planted fodder trees such as calliandra, and napier grass for their cows, greatly improving the lives of 30,000 people (out of over 750,000 in the county).

Priscillah Mbonne and her seven-member family have been burdened by cultural norms that deter wives from planting trees and making decisions on crops. Prior to 2017, the family practiced continuous cultivation and mono-cropping, thus increasingly leading to food insecurity. As a coping strategy, Mbonne ventured into dairy farming, but her two cows grazed in the forest due to lack of fodder.

She now does minimal grazing in the forest since she has enough fodder to feed her animals. Milk production has also increased from 5.0 to 7.5 litres per day. The availability of farm manure and fodder for manure has helped boost farm productivity.

Mbonne smiles: “I have enough food at home and I am able to send my two children to school without any support from my husband.”

In the last short rainy season from September to December 2018, Mbonne harvested six bags (549 kg) of maize on her 0.2 hectare plot, improving her household’s food security.

“Over 800 million people in the world are undernourished—a figure that is growing, not reducing,” says the UN Environment Programme’s ecosystems expert Jane Nimpamya. “Projects like this one in western Kenya can be replicated in many other parts of Africa and the world where population pressure is driving land degradation. Projects like this can make a tangible difference to people’s lives.”

Applying Landscape and Sustainable Land Management for Mitigating Land Degradation and Contributing to Poverty Reduction in Rural Areas is just one of more than 80 projects UNEP has implemented with the backing of the Global Environment Facility in support of the UN Convention to Combat Degradation and Desertification and other efforts to bring a halt to the threat of land degradation globally.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030, led by the UN Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and partners such as Afr100, the Global Landscapes Forum and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, covers terrestrial as well as coastal and marine ecosystems. A global call to action, it will draw together political support, scientific research and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration. Help us shape the Decade.