African countries decide to tackle soil health challenges

The Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit (AFSH), organized by the African Union (AU) and the Government of Kenya, took place in Nairobi from 7 to 9 May. About 4,000 participants attended the summit, including over 60 African heads of state and ministers, policy makers, the private sector, NGOs, academia, and donor organizations to address pressing issues concerning fertilizer use and soil health.

"A nation that destroys the soil, destroys itself", Dr. Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Deputy Chairperson African Union Commission, quoted former US-President Franklin Roosevelt, during the summit.

In African countries, food insecurity and malnutrition have risen in the last ten years, as have dependencies on the global markets for food and fertilizers. The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) estimated a production deficit of 30 million tons of grain in 2021. It sees the food supply of 60 to 90 million people at risk, especially in Mali, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. This is, inter alia, due to prolonged and widespread soil degradation. Many African soils are by nature heavily weathered, nutrient-poor and acidified. Unsustainable management practices and continuous under-fertilization are main reasons for severe nutrient depletion and reduced soil fertility resulting in low yields. The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and the Corona pandemic aggravated this trend as availabilities of and access to fertilizers were heavily impacted. In the face of these challenges, the importance of sustainable fertilizer and soil management is becoming increasingly apparent.

The Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit (AFSH) followed a balanced approach equally focusing on improving fertilizer use and soil health in Africa from the perspective of an integrated soil fertility management (ISFM). ISFM addresses the concept of production systems in which efficient fertilizers, both mineral and organic; other inputs, such as healthy seeds of adapted varieties; water use efficiency for irrigation; and other aspects of soil health and sustainable management are crucial to food security and agricultural sustainability. This represented a clear paradigm shift from the Abuja Declaration of 2006, whose main objective was to increase fertilizer use to 50 kg/ha. As a result of the summit, all 55 AU member states adopted the Nairobi Declaration, the 10-Year Action Plan on Fertilizers and Soil Health and the overarching Soil Initiative for Africa. These documents not only provide an important reference framework for future work on soil health and agricultural productivity in Africa, but they can support the sustainable transformation of agriculture and food systems.

The Nairobi Declaration aims to triple domestic production of organic and inorganic fertilizers by 2034 and to improve access and affordability for smallholder farmers. In addition, countries committed to reversing soil degradation and restoring soil health to at least 30 percent of degraded soils within the same timeframe. The 10-year Action Plan translates the Nairobi Declaration into four outcomes with corresponding lines of action. Until the end of the year, the AU and its development agency AUDA-NEPAD plan to set up a secretary for pan-African coordination, support and monitoring of implementation. These processes shall be closely linked to the mechanisms of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program that is currently under revision. AU member states are supposed to draw up national action plans backed by appropriate funding until the end of the year.

Anticipating the AFSHS, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the World Bank hosted a round table on Fertilizers and Soil Health in May 2023 to strengthen soil health and improve the use of fertilizers as a key element in stimulating agricultural production and combatting food insecurity in West Africa, under the patronage of H.E. the President of the Republic of Togo. The adopted Lomé Declaration can be seen as regional implementation framework for the Nairobi Declaration for West Africa. It remains to be seen to what extent other regional economic communities will join the coordination process to achieve the goals of the Nairobi declaration and its 10-year action plan.

"A balanced approach to soil fertilizer management is critical", H.E. Dr. Nangolo Mbumba, President of Namibia, stated.

"Integrating mineral and organic fertilizers and other soil management techniques to create a sustainable agricultural system that meets both the current and future food needs without compromising the soil health of the continent."

And H.E Lazarus Chakwera, President of Malawi, added: "Even though our efforts to increase the access and use of inorganic fertilizer have led to an increase in our national agricultural output, the benefits have not been enjoyed by all as desired - the missing link is the urgency to address all soil health issues."

The Soil Initiative for Africa, as the third adopted summit documents focuses on longer term investments in soil science research to reach land users across Africa with the best practices, information and technologies available. The 10-year Action Plan is meant as first implementation phase of the SIA. To achieve its goals, the Nairobi declaration specifically aims at fostering partnerships between various interest groups and investments in fertilizers and soil management to sustainably increase productivity in Africa. In this same spirit, 14 donors, amongst them the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Commission, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), committed in their Joint Development Partner Statement to support the implementation of the Nairobi Declaration, the 10-year Action Plan and the SIA in a coordinated manner.

"In Africa, for every 1kg of fertilizer applied, we see 10kg of grain", Enock Chikava, Director, Agricultural Delivery Systems at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, stressed. "In America and in Europe, the same amount of fertilizer yields 30kg of grain. This difference is what we call soil health. There is something taking place under our feet, and we need to correct it."

Together with its African partners, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH participated in 6 of 56 side events, in particular on the topics of integrated soil fertility management, soil health, organic fertilizer, reuse of fertilizer subsidies and soil information systems. The Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock took the opportunity to present its agricultural and soil management policy, which was developed with the support of the BMZ-commissioned Global Programme Soil Protection and Soil Rehabilitation for Food Security. Since 2014, through the work of the Global Programme, more than 600,000 smallholder farmers apply sustainable soil management and have been able to rehabilitate more than 800,000 hectares of land. They increased yields by an average of 33 per cent. This directly benefited the lives of over 2 million people.