Why A Summit?

Economic development in Africa must be based on increased and sustainable agricultural production, the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) has declared. To realize this vision, African heads of state and governments have developed the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) as a framework for agricultural growth, food security, and rural development. CAADP has set a goal of 6% annual growth in agricultural production to reach the UN’s Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger by 2015.

Low soil fertility is one of the main causes of Africa’s persistent food insecurity. Fertilizer use is limited in Africa and intensive monocropping has led to widespread depletion of soil nutrients. Farmers in sub-Saharan use an average of only 8 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare yearly. Fertilizer use in regions that have experienced rapid growth in agricultural productivity, on the other hand, is 100 to 200 kg/ha.

Improved plant varieties are available that can launch the African Green Revolution called for by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. But the improved varieties can realize their full yield potential only with a significant increase in the use of mineral fertilizers. Ideally, farmers should integrate the use of both organic and mineral fertilizers to improve soil structure, increase soil organic matter, and enhance nutrient uptake by plants. But mineral fertilizers are needed to produce the organic amendments. Extremely low use of mineral fertilizer is among the most important constraints to agricultural productivity in Africa. No region in the world has achieved food security without significantly increasing fertilizer use.

Holistic Approach

An African Green Revolution requires more than increased fertilizer use. Its success requires a holistic approach to availability of all agricultural inputs, improved output markets, and policies that encourage input use by farmers and fair prices for their production. Poorly functioning input and output markets fertilizer use in most of sub-Saharan Africa. Weak demand for inputs, and their irregular and costly supply, are the major factors for the disappointingly poor markets for agricultural inputs.

Market Liberalisation

Most African countries have initiated market liberalisation measures that have led to the emergence of private companies that supply agricultural inputs. But most of the private enterprises are concentrated in urban and semi-urban areas, with well-developed market infrastructure. The vast majority of African farmers have limited access to inputs, including fertilizers, because they live in rural areas that are poorly served by infrastructure. They must travel considerable distances to find fertilizer—and then, at a price two to four times what farmers in industrialized countries pay These factors are huge disincentives to use of the mineral fertilizers that are so critical to increased farm productivity.

Strategies to Increase Fertilizer Use

Past strategies to increase fertilizer use in Africa include  fertilizer subsidies, distribution vouchers that farmers can redeem for fertilizers, “starter kits” to encourage farmers to experiment with fertilizer, and fertilizer-for-work-programmes. Some of these intervention approaches have had short-term success, but most have failed with the end of external funding by governments, donor agencies, or NGOs. The ventures had merit, but not long-term sustainability.

Challenges

The challenges that African policy markers face today include improving the rural market infrastructure, and lowering the transaction costs that poor African farmers face to buy fertilizer and other agricultural inputs. Economic development policies should be pro-poor to ensure that poor farmers participate in the markets.

Three issues must be addressed if millions of African farmers are increase access to fertilizer:

-Access. Measures are needed to improve the volume, range, and quality of agricultural inputs that move to the rural poor via the private sector.

    -Affordability. The price of fertilizers and other inputs must be lowered, so the rural poor can afford them.

-Incentives. Output markets must be improved to give farmers incentives to invest in inputs to raise farm productivity.

Purpose of the Summit

The purpose of the Summit is to bring together such as African heads of state, senior policy makers, key government officials, private sector leaders, representatives of farmer organisations, development agencies, NGOs, scientists, and donors to increase awareness of the role of fertilizers in stimulating sustainable and pro–poor productivity growth in African agriculture, and to plan strategies to rapidly increase the efficient use of fertilizers by African farmers.

Goal of the Summit  

The goal of the Summit is to build a consensus around key issues in increasing fertilizer use in Africa, and to agree on a strategy for developing an African Fertilizer Action Plan to accelerate the access of millions of poor farmers to fertilizers and complementary inputs that will help raise farm production and achieve food security.

Objectives of the Summit

The Summit’s objectives are to:

• affirm the critical importance of fertilizer in rapid, sustainable, and pro-poor growth in agricultural productivity in Africa;
   

• review the status of fertilizer use in Africa, and identify the main policy, institutional, financing, infrastructural, and market constraints that limit fertilizer access by poor farmers;
   

• learn about innovative approaches that have been used to build rural input market infrastructure to supply agricultural inputs to the rural poor; and
   

• agree on a strategy for developing an African Fertilizer Action Plan to accelerate the access of millions of poor farmers to mineral fertilizers and complementary inputs.

Component Activities

The Summit will facilitate dialogue among African heads of state, donors, development partners, the private sector, and farmer groups that will result in consensus regarding development of a fertilizer subsector.

An Eminent Persons Advisory Committee of internationally respected scientists and development specialists advises the Technical Committee, which is selected from key stakeholders in Africa and the international development community. The Technical Committee selects discussion topics and eo;; endorse the Summit proceedings.

Conference Format

The Summit will be lean on plenary sessions and formal presentations and heavy on moderated breakout groups with expert panels and active discussions that will lead to Summit recommendations. Written proceedings will be prepared within 120 days after Summit completion.

Target Audience

The target audience includes stakeholders such as heads of state of all African countries and/or their representatives, senior officials of donor agencies and development organisations active in agricultural sector development in Africa, leaders in the fertilizer private sector, and farmer groups.

Summit Organisation

The Summit was called for and will be hosted by the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) and the African Union (AU). It will be sponsored by numerous donor groups including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Department of International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Kilimo/Gatsby Trust Charitable Foundation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA), and the Sasakawa Africa Association. NEPAD has selected the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) to implement the Summit.

Expected Outcomes

The initial outcome of the Summit will be a strategy for developing an African Fertilizer Action Plan, which will include:

- a prototype action plan with options for development partners to provide various types of assistance addressing approaches to policy and regulatory constraints, institutional and structural constraints, human capacity constraints,  marketing analyses, partnership and linkage development, and cross-country and subregional linkage development; and

- a framework for developing, financing, and implementing  the African Fertilizer Action Plan and national fertilizer action plans.

Other outcomes include a comprehensive proceeding report on the status of, and prospects for, the supply, marketing, and use of fertilizer in Africa. The report will include analyses of key issues and objectives, recommendations, lessons learned, and outcomes from the various discussions and workshops, and listings of contacts and information sources

Hosting and Venue

The Summit will be hosted by the Government of Federal Republic of Nigeria and  held at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, the nation’s capital. It will be chaired by His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria and Chairman, NEPAD Implementation Committee.