Fertilisers: Chemical or organic, soils need replenishment

Uganda’s fertiliser use is one of the lowest in the world, way below the world average.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, while Uganda has one of the highest soil nutrient depletion rates in the world, it has one of the lowest rates of annual inorganic fertiliser application – only 1.8kg per hectare compared to 2.6kg/ha world average.

The African Development Bank insists that “many African countries have already seen price hikes in bread and other food items,” warning that “if this deficit is not made up, food production in Africa will decline by at least 20 per cent and the continent could lose more than $11 billion in food production value.”

Most smallholder farmers fail to use fertiliser because of perceptions that the country still has fertile soils but even those willing farmers face the growing obstacle of high prices due to the disrupted supply chain brought by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Experts believe that the only way to ensure that soils keep giving to feed the growing population is partly through intense fertiliser application.

A two-day regional public-private dialogue on the future of fertiliser and agro-inputs in Africa held at Speke Resort Munyonyo by the African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP), discussed options for increasing fertiliser uptake. 

Accessibility

Through its direct Agribusiness Partnership Contracting mechanism, AFAP has helped negotiate structured trade credits for more than 1.5 million metric tonnes of fertiliser into smallholder markets with a retail value of more than $1.25b.

Building on its successful hub-agro-dealer network in Uganda that has a retail reach of 468 retailers and more than 190,000 smallholder farmers, AFAP is strengthening the hub agro distribution chain of inputs and unlocking the business potential of inputs.

Through the Africa Fertiliser Financing Mechanism, a special fund established by the African Union member states and managed by the African Development Bank, AFAP is keen on improving agricultural productivity by providing financing required to boost fertiliser use in Africa to achieve the target of 50kg of nutrients per hectare, as mandated by the Abuja Declaration.

AFAP has also been behind the African fertiliser financing mechanism which is operational in Nigeria and Tanzania since 2018. Discussions are in advanced stages between AFAP and the Africa Development Bank to launch the programme in Uganda.

Organic vs inorganic

The battle lines have long been drawn between synthetic and inorganic fertiliser. What farmers cannot run away from is the fact that the soils are deeply mined and need replenishing.

In order to improve agricultural productivity and meet the food security needs, experts argue that inorganic fertiliser can be a powerful productivity enhancing input.

The World Bank estimates that the value of replacing these depleted soil nutrients could be 20 percent of average rural Ugandan household income.

As prices skyrocket, there is a section of farmers seeking ways to cut artificial fertiliser rates on the basis of plant and soil health. Climate-friendly practices are looked at as the option to increase yields while improving the ecosystem of farms.

Techniques such as adding manure and compost to soils, growing nitrogen-fixing plants between crops, and cultivating a wide range of produce instead of sticking to the same crops, can all increase yields while protecting and improving the natural ecosystems of farms.

“Our results demonstrate that [ecological farming methods] could play an important role in the development of future sustainable farming systems,” Million Belay, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa’s general coordinator, says.

“There are undoubtedly benefits beyond just yield, such as reducing costs, reducing pollution, or providing other valuable farm products,” he adds.

Blends

Scientists argue that the fertiliser supply chain must be thoroughly thought of with affordable options.

Blended fertiliser is the choice as it has three main advantages over complex fertilisers. The first is that of versatility, the second is a simple matter of economics and the third is a better protection of the environment. Blends can be specifically matched to local soil conditions and plant needs, thus avoiding excess nutrients which may enter the environment.

Sophie Mirembe, the head of commercial at Grain Pulse, an agro-centric company that has a fertiliser blending plant in Mukono with a capacity of 300,000 metric tonnes says the price of raw materials is still very high.

The raw materials that make up the crop nutrient commodity market are ammonia, nitrogen, potash, urea, phosphates, sulphates and nitrates whose prices rose to between 50-60 percent yet the price of Muriate of Potash (MOP) has more than doubled. Mirembe says they used to buy MOP at $400 (Shs1.5m) but now it is at $1,112 (Shs4m).

Options

Manure is one of the organic fertiliser products that particularly smallholder farmers may have to use and there’s a growing movement for more organic fertilisers to be brought to market.

The scientific aspect of this is that one actually gets higher yields from inorganic fertiliser, but as the price of inorganic fertiliser grows, there is a need for initiatives to try and bring those prices down.

Scientists are promoting the blend of inorganic and organic. One of the positives of organic fertilisers is that they help with soil health. And so an optimal scenario from the climate and sustainability standpoint would be to reduce some of the inorganic composition of a spread that would take place in planting season and complement that with organic.

Government action

With the stalled Tororo Fertiliser factory, the government is still stuck with the wrangles of ownership that led the company to halt production until a new investor is found.

John Mwanja, Ag. Assistant Commissioner Agro-chemicals under the department of Crop Inspection and Certification says that the government is keen on helping smallholder farmers.

“Fertiliser access among smallholder farmers is basically about high prices, inadequate sensitisation to enable farmers to get increased production,” Mwanja says. Government provides the enabling environment to the private sector to be able to provide fertilisers to the farmers and also control the quality of fertilisers on the market.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries through the financing of the International Development Assistance (IDA) of the World Bank has been promoting the Agriculture Cluster Development Project (ACDP) to provide subsidised Agro-inputs dealers, such as fertiliser, pesticides and post-harvest materials.

Paul Mwambu, the Commissioner Department of Crop Inspection and Certification says the project is under review before it can continue. However, he says there are other functional programmes.

Accessibility

Through its direct Agribusiness Partnership Contracting mechanism, AFAP has helped negotiate structured trade credits for more than 1.5 million metric tonnes of fertiliser into smallholder markets with a retail value of more than $1.25b.