AGRA

Achieving goal number two of the Sustainable Development goals – Zero Hunger – is the biggest challenge for mankind in our day. Every other goal is hinged on the ability of the world to feed its people without leaving anyone behind. But this challenge is more pronounced in Africa than anywhere else. The question many researchers ask is: Can Africa feed itself? This question must be answered for us to even start talking about the SDGs.

Many research findings have concluded that it is possible for Africa to achieve self-sufficiency in food if its land resource is intensively farmed while stopping dependence on food imports. Africa’s potential to produce food remains largely untapped, as seen by the region’s relatively low yields compared to other regions with similar agro–ecological zones like South Asia. It is estimated that 800 million hectares of land in Sub-Saharan Africa are ideal for rain-fed agriculture. But despite this potential, Africa continues to struggle with an undernourished population that is projected to grow from 1.2 billion currently to about 1.8 billion in 2050. According to the Food Agriculture Organization, the prevalence of undernourishment on the continent went up from 17.6% in 2014 to 19.1% of the population in 2019. Of concern too, Africa is the only continent where agricultural productivity per capita has been falling over the last 30 years.

Truth, however, is that African countries require ample supply of affordable and nutritious food for their growing populations hence the reason why African agriculture must work. At the same time, agriculture is a major employer especially in rural areas where it accounts for up to 60 per cent of the job market. But land subdivision due to population pressure means that farms in many parts of Africa are too small for any meaningful agriculture, which compromises food security and household incomes in rural areas. In addition, the soil quality is low and infrastructure is generally poor, leading to high production and transportation costs and uncompetitive input and output markets. Means must, therefore, be found on how to provide affordable and nutritious food for the population in the rural and urban areas, calling for major transformation in the way agriculture is practiced.

One of the most negatively affected by the wanting conditions in Africa that are worsened by high poverty rates is fertiliser costs, crop-yield response to fertilisers, and fertilizer use profitability. Average fertilizer application rates in Africa range between 13 and 20 kg per hectare – well below the global average of 135 kg per hectare. African Heads of State have been concerned by the need to bridge this gap. The 2006 Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution for instance identified the critical need to increase fertilizer use to stimulate agricultural productivity to end hunger and poverty in Africa. Again in 2014 during the 23^rd Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the Member States committed to inclusive agricultural transformation and also committed to the 2003 Maputo Declaration on implementing integrated and sustainable development in agriculture and water in Africa.

Most recently in 2022 at the African Union Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in Nairobi, they adopted the 10-year Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan and the Soil Initiative for Africa Framework. Key among the commitments in the action plan was to expand domestic production and distribution of certified quality organic and inorganic fertilizers; to fully operationalize the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism Action Plan; to formulate and implement policies and regulations to create a conducive environment for fertilizer and soil health interventions; and to develop and promote systemic national capacity building for locally relevant fertilizer and soil health management practices and technologies, among others.

One of the mechanisms African governments have responded to the problem of underuse of fertilisers is through “smart” Fertilizer Subsidy Programmes (FSPs) conceived in mid-2000s to promote fertilizer access and increase sustainable use without distorting nascent fertilizer markets.

FSPs seek to overcome flaws in food systems that limit fertilizer availability and access and thereby damage soil health and blunt food system performance. By reducing costs, boosting yields, and increasing fertilizer use efficiency, FSPs hope to promote innovations in food systems that raise farmer incomes, enhance livelihoods, and increase food security. Given their scale, FSPs have the potential to significantly impact the agricultural sector and wider macroeconomic conditions, including aggregate income growth, employment, exports and imports, and public debt and finances.

AGRA, between 2016 and 2017, undertook an assessment of marketing and distribution systems of fertilizer and farm inputs in 11 selected countries (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) resulting in the identification of several gaps and challenges. These included a lack of holistic integrated approaches aligned with broader agricultural sector goals and strategies, limited soil testing capacity and integrated soil health approaches, poor programme timing and inadequate stakeholder sensitization and inadequate fertilizer quality control and inspection. Other challenges included flawed beneficiary targeting, registration, and management, poorly implemented transfer mechanisms, inadequate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems and elite capture, corruption, and politicization.

AGRA gave both short-term and medium-term recommendations for improving the enabling environment for implementation of FSPs. Among short-term recommendations was the need to ensure timely distribution of subsidized fertilizers, to increase quality and rigor of beneficiary targeting, registration, and management systems, leveraging digital platforms and mobile applications in gender-sensitive approaches and to strengthen graduation and exit strategy design and execution. Over and above this, AGRA recommended the need to integrate fertilizer subsidies with complementary inputs and interventions for soil health improvement, enhance and expand e-voucher systems and reduction of bureaucratic hurdles as well as enhancing transparency and efficiency in fertilizer importation among others.

For the medium-term actions ranging between three to five years, AGRA’s recommendations included the need to terminate all universal FSPs and replace them with targeted ones; invest in infrastructure and capacity building to scale up soil testing; scale up domestic fertilizer manufacturing and blending capacity and to strengthen quality control measures for subsidized fertilizers. AGRA also recommended the establishment of accreditation mechanisms for input retailers, increasing quality, rigor, and coverage of M&E systems, deploying digital tools in regular assessments and combating elite capture, corruption, and politicization through transparent procurement processes and robust oversight.

It is AGRA’s hope that governments and the private sector will embrace the above recommendations to boost efforts to ensure Africa gets closer to the “zero hunger’ target in the near future. AGRA is also excited by the commitment of the African Heads of State during the Nairobi summit to triple domestic production and distribution of certified quality organic and inorganic fertilizers by 2034 to improve access and affordability and to finance and promote youth-led initiatives oriented towards production and distribution of fertilisers. If this is well executed, in addition to all other measures being taken to promote food production, we can stand in hope for a continent that feeds herself and the world.