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Fertilizer in selected sub-saharan countries; fertilizer policy in Benin; principal constrains to fertilizer use in Cameroon; the fertilizer sector in cote D'Ivoire; the place of fertilizer in Ghana's quest for increased agricultural productivity; fertilizer policy in Kenya; fertilizer supply and demand in Malawi; fertilizer policy and programs: Nigeria's experience; fertilizer use in Senegal and perspectives; problems related to the use of fertilizers in Togo; fertilizer policy in Zambia; fertilizer use in Zimbabwe: supply, demand, policy and related problems; fertilizer consumption in sub-saharan Africa: an analysis of growth and profile of use; fertilizer supply in sub-saharan Africa - an analysis; fertilizer use in Asia: lessons from selected countryexperiences; agronomic aspects of mineral and organic fertilizer use in sub-saharan Africa; micro-socio economic research on constrains to fertilizer use in sub-saharan Africa for policy development; strategiesto enhance the dissemination of fertilizer information in the sub-saharan region.
The good practice guidelines - which form the basis of an interactive policymaker's tool kit included on a CD accompanying the book - relate not only to the more focused problem of encouraging increased fertilizer use by farmers, but also to the broader challenge of creating the type of enabling environment that is needed to support the emergence of efficient, dynamic and commercially viable fertilizer marketing systems."--Jacket.
Agriculture continues to play an important role in African economies. According to the African Development Bank, agricultural activities comprise around 15 percent of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) and agricultural employment represents around 58 percent of total employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. The region’s population is expected to double to 2 billion people by 2050. Along with expected income growth, the population increase will lead to a substantial rise in food requirements. To meet food demand, FAO estimates that agricultural production would have to increase 112 percent between 2013 and 2050. Meeting this demand will not be easy, as agricultural productivity in SSA remains low and shows slow growth. The vast majority of African smallholder farmers produce low-yield food crops using a minimal set of inputs. Inadequate access to improved inputs such as fertilizers presents a major constraint for smallholders. In the region, more nutrients are removed with harvested crops than are applied with fertilizer or manure, resulting in unsustainable soil nutrient depletion. Improved fertilizer use will help to counteract this trend while substantially improving food security.
Tropical Africa escaped from the glaciers that covered the temperate parts of the world during the Ice Age. The legacy is that most of the parent materials of the soils of tropical Africa are old, highly weathered and devoid of bases and phosphate-bearing minerals. Traditional farming systems which were relatively stable and sustainable relied on long fallow periods after one to two years of cropping to maintain the productive capacity of the soils. In recent times and especially in densely populated areas, a sizeable class of 'landless' farmers have begun to cultivate marginal lands or to invade the 'forest reserves' thereby exacerbating the problems of land and environ mental degradation. of soil fertility that will facilitate the production of adequate quantities of the principle Maintaining a level staples has become a major challenge to agricultural scientists in tropical Africa. To increase the nutrient supplying power of soils requires the inputs of fertilizers. These can be organic or inorganic. The efficiency with which these externally supplied inputs can increase agricultural production and reduce soil and environmental deterioration is dependent on the ability of scientists to determine the right types and quantities of the products to apply to each soil, crop and cropping system as well as the ability of farmers to acquire requisite farm manage ment skills.
The removal of fertilizer subsidies, and privatization of importation and distribution networks have been prominent features of recent policy reforms in MADIA countries to reduce budget deficits and the role of the public sector. This paper reviews the reform policies implemented during the 1980s in the MADIA countries and their impact on the development of fertilizer use. In particular, it explores the supply and demand constraints that hinder the process of rapid growth and diffusion of fertilizer use. This study recommends that : 1) donors should undertake long term, untied import support for fertilizers to promote sound intensification of fertilizer use on a sustained basis, 2) food and fertilizer stocks be financed at the national and regional levels to encourage governments to remove intra and inter country restrictions on trade, 3) improving the knowledge base on a location specific basis, especially the relative role of fertilizers vis a vis other more complex resource management needs, and 4) privatization offers great potential for improving fertilizer procurement and distribution.
Given the central role that agriculture plays in the rural economy of Africa, several countries have implemented supply– and demand-driven policies and programs to promote sustainable fertilizer use, with mixed results. However, not much has been said about the market structure or competitive behavior along the supply chain in the highly concentrated fertilizer industry, nor about how this affects fertilizer uptake in the region. Globally, the industry has only a few producers, and African countries are highly and increasingly dependent on imported fertilizer. Locally, fertilizer distribution channels are also characterized by a limited number of market actors, often with a poor dealer network.
Fertilizer is an essential input for wide-scale sustainable intensification of crop productivity in tropical Africa, but its use by smallholders is often financially constrained. Four fertilizer use issues are addressed. Smallholders need high net returns from their investments, with acceptable risk, which can be achieved with good crop-nutrient-rate choices made in consideration of the farmer,Äôs financial and agronomic context. Soil acidification, which is affected by crop N supply, is best managed with the use of slightly more acidifying but less costly common N fertilizer, e.g., urea, coupled with lime use compared with the use of more costly but less acidifying N fertilizer such as calcium ammonium nitrate. This chapter addresses the feasibility of tailored fertilizer blends for maximizing farmer profit with respect to the nutrient supply cost, the need for flexibility in nutrient application according to the farmer,Äôs context, and the weak justification for tailoring blends based on soil test results. The use of a well-formulated blends is justified in some cases, e.g., for some crops in Rwanda, but the supply of blends does not justify restricting the supply of common fertilizers. Farmers need to be aware that unregulated nontraditional products very often fail to provide the claimed benefits. Fertilizer use, sometimes with timely lime application, can be highly profitable with modest risk with good crop-nutrient-rate choices, adequate free-market fertilizer supply, and avoiding products with unsubstantiated claims.
Food security, one of the basic human rights, seems to be ever eluding the people of sub-Saharan Africa. With each occurrence of crop failure, agriculturalists around the world reawaken to the challenge of ensuring sta ble, adequate food production in the tropical African environments. The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), with its mandate of alleviating food shortages through judicial use of fertilizers, formulated a program to study fertilizer use strategies for sub-Saharan Africa. With gener ous financial assistance from the International Fund for Agricultural Devel opment (IFAD), IFDC, in collaboration with the International Crop Re search Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IIT A), initiated a research project aimed at assessing means to remedy soil nutrient deficiencies that constrain food production in the humid, subhumid, and semiarid tropics of Africa. The results of this project were summarized during a workshop held in Togo, March 25-28, 1985; the proceedings of that meetings are found in this vol ume. The project established collaboration with numerous national programs that were responsible for much of the data collection. The data presented in Chapters 6 and 9 include much of this information. We wish to acknowledge the contribution of the individual scientists, J.T. Ambe, F. Ganry, M. Gaoh, M. Issaka, J. Kiazolu, J. Kikafunde-Twine, K. Kpomblekou, F. Lompo, H.
Most Africans live in rural areas and derive their incomes from farming; but because African governments follow policies that are adverse to most farmers' interests, these countries fail to produce enough food to feed their populations. "Markets and States in Tropical Africa "analyzes these and other paradoxical features of development in modern Africa and explores how governments have intervened and diverted resources from farmers to other sectors of society. A classic of the field since its publication in 1981, this edition includes a new preface by the author.