Despite its vast arable, water resources and manpower, the African continent is largely food and nutritional insecure and a net food importer. It is also one of the regions of the world where agriculture productivity remains low. Africa needs to increase fertilizer use to boost food security by investing more in agriculture, a sector with greatest [...]
Crop yields in Africa remain low compared to elsewhere in the world because smallholder farmers are using less fertilizers, a critical input that can help raise productivity and soil fertility. Africa is challenged by generally poor soil fertility and land degradation, which affects more than 40 percent of its arable land. Cooperation between all actors in [...]
Mercy Chatepa’s business is to keep smallholder farmers happy. “Happy farmers are productive farmers and my business supplies the right inputs that make farming productive and nothing makes a farmer happy than a good yield,” says Chatepa, who ran a successful restaurant in Machinga, on the southern part of Malawi and kept many customers fed. It [...]
With a conducive policy environment, Africa can boost investment in the regional fertilizer trade to support farmers raise productivity and food security, fertilizer associations say. While a strategic input, fertilizers are largely inaccessible and unaffordable to many African smallholder farmers who are challenged by low yields and poor productivity. The absence of appropriate fertilizer policies is [...]
