Browsing: fertilizer production in Africa

Africa fertilizer

Africa’s plan to enhance fertilizer access and soil health takes root

Industry and Trade
  • African nations commit to creating a soil health fund to support research, innovation, and capacity building on fertiliser usage.
  • AfDB agrees to mobilise financing to ease fertilizer availability, de-risk farmer investments, and support policy reforms across the continent.
  • In Nairobi, governments commit to formulating policies that will serve to create a conducive environment for fertilizer and soil health interventions.

Africa fertilizer supply is a multi-billion dollar industry that at the moment, is tapped by Western countries, particularly and ironically, Russia and Ukraine. Just as hard lessons were learnt in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, so was the need to invest in fertilizer production and distribution brought to light in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The war led to a severe shortage of fertilizers in Africa and now, in an effort to mitigate the challenge African Heads of State have committed to support the full operationalization of the …

Insulating African Economies from the Global Polycrisis

Premium

Into a menacing economic quick sand African economies have been sinking, taking hefty blows from numerous unprecedented challenges birthed by the overarching global crisis. The status quo has instigated a clarion call to cushion them from dipping further beneath the horizon, by casting different viable iron rods, as the ‘one shoe fits all’ approach is not feasible due the dynamic nature of African economies. Inarguably, Africa has not been left unscathed amid the ongoing global ‘polycrisis’, as described in the 2023 World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Risks Report, to mean  a cluster of related global risks with compounding effects, such that the overall impact exceeds the sum of each part.

In light of this, on day three of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, UN Secretary General António Guterres in his speech, stated that at present the world faces “a category five” storm of challenges that need urgent action. These include …

Despite international initiatives food inflation worsening in Africa

Industry and Trade

At the close of 2022, between September to December, food prices soared around the world and with no signs of this abating in 2023, countries in Africa will have to move with speed to mitigate a looming food crisis. 

Food inflation is particularly pronounced and severe in low-income and middle-income countries. According to most recent sector reports, up to 94.1% of low-income countries around the world suffer food inflation.

With increasing food prices, the cost of living is increasing, and it is no better in lower-middle-income countries of which 92.9% are contending with food inflation.

Also Read: Starvation, death threaten Horn of Africa stability 

Even the upper-middle-income countries are also facing food inflation with 89% reporting unprecedented double-digit inflation. 

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), maize prices in December 2022 went up by 27% while wheat shot up 13% higher compared to the same period in 2021.

As we

…

Africa becoming a global fertilizer production hub

Industry and Trade

Africa continues to grapple with what has been described by the UN, as the ’perfect storm of horrors’, due to the plethora of troubles that has hit the continent. From the climate change crisis, drought and famine, conflict, Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. The war has especially wreaked havoc on the continent’s food security, due to disruptions in global supply chains pertinently in food, fuel and fertilizers. Food insecurity in the continent was already at an all-time high before the war, principally in the Horn of Africa due to the locust invasion which was climate-induced. The situation was worsened by the pandemic, but the war has caused a full-blown hunger crisis in many regions. Fertilizer shortages and their high prices thereof, continue to exacerbate the hunger quagmire.

According to the 2022 Global Report of Food Crises Mid-Year Update report, at least one in five Africans goes to bed hungry,…

…

Aliko Dangote’s fertilizer plant answer to Africa’s Russia-Ukraine crisis worries

Agribusiness

The global fertilizer market has been shaken, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said that the plant is timely and will help Nigeria solve a perennial fertilizer problem.

The new fertilizer plant will produce 3 million metric tonnes annually, with Buhari expecting a boom as fertilizer is now readily available in more significant quantities and better quality. The head of state encouraged Nigerians to take up agriculture as a business, saying that he expects the rise of a new breed of agropreneurs who will add value to farming and make the nation self-sufficient in food production.”

Dangote said that fertilizer from the plant would be exported to many countries, including the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and India.…