The world is confronting an unprecedented meals disaster, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s battle in opposition to Ukraine, and worsening local weather situations. However the issue is most acute in Africa, the place 61 per cent of the inhabitants confronted reasonable or extreme meals insecurity in 2022. And at a second when efficient options are urgently wanted, policymakers are as soon as once more coalescing across the misguided perception that elevated use of mineral and artificial fertiliser is the important thing to boosting agricultural productiveness and ending starvation on the continent.
This strategy may be traced again to the Abuja Declaration on Fertiliser for the Africa Inexperienced Revolution that African Union leaders endorsed in 2006. The aim was to reverse the continent’s poor yields by boosting fertiliser use from eight to 50 kilograms per hectare inside a decade. Spearheading this effort was the Alliance for a Inexperienced Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an initiative backed by the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis and different main donors. Working carefully with giant agribusinesses just like the Norwegian-based chemical firm Yara, AGRA championed the concept distributing artificial nitrogen fertilisers would remedy Africa’s agricultural challenges.
However this singular give attention to artificial fertiliser use has failed to handle the complicated realities of farming in Africa. A current evaluation of AGRA’s initiatives in Burkina Faso and Ghana discovered no proof that offering chemical inputs and high-yield seeds resulted in elevated manufacturing and better incomes for smallholder farmers. As an alternative, many are actually extra weak and indebted after coming to depend on costly artificial pesticides and fertilisers, the costs of which soared following Russia’s invasion. These farmers have turn out to be locked in a cycle of dependency, whereas corporations like Yara reap substantial earnings.
Zambia is an effective instance. Regardless of being one of many largest shoppers of artificial nitrogen fertiliser in Africa, the nation has not skilled a corresponding discount in starvation and malnutrition. The view that extra fertiliser means much less starvation fails to handle the systemic obstacles to meals safety, equivalent to affordability, and exacerbates present challenges, equivalent to soil degradation.
Particularly, artificial nitrogen fertilisers disrupt the fragile stability of the soil ecosystem – the very basis of sustainable agriculture. These inputs have been proven to cut back the abundance and variety of useful microorganisms, equivalent to mycorrhizal fungi, that are important for nutrient biking and plant well being. When these symbiotic relationships are disrupted, soil resilience and fertility decline. In response to the World Financial institution, Africa is already estimated to be shedding round 3 per cent of GDP per 12 months as a result of nutrient depletion and common soil degradation.
Along with undermining crop productiveness, and thus dealing a devastating blow to the livelihoods and meals safety of hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers, extreme fertiliser use additionally has far-reaching environmental penalties. It contributes to nitrogen air pollution in water our bodies, inflicting biodiversity loss in aquatic programs and pushing the planet previous protected limits for people. Maybe most worryingly, analysis signifies that the manufacturing and utility of artificial nitrogen fertilisers accounts for roughly 2 per cent of complete world greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions.
In consequence, chemical corporations like Yara are switching to “inexperienced fertilisers,” that are produced utilizing hydrogen derived from renewable-energy sources, quite than fossil fuel-based inputs. This permits them to proceed advocating for using artificial fertilisers as an answer to meals insecurity in Africa (and, by extension, sustaining and increasing the marketplace for their merchandise), at the same time as analysis factors to the shortcomings of such an strategy.
It’s true that utilizing inexperienced hydrogen to supply fertiliser can mitigate GHG emissions. However whereas the manufacturing course of could also be much less carbon-intensive, it’s nonetheless extremely energy-intensive. And making use of fertiliser can launch big surges of nitrous oxide – a potent GHG – into the ambiance, and might nonetheless trigger soil degradation and water air pollution, no matter how it’s produced. By selling “inexperienced fertiliser” as a panacea, the trade is partaking in greenwashing – utilizing the veneer of sustainability to guard its pursuits.
This week, the AU’s Africa Fertiliser and Soil Well being Summit in Nairobi will handle soil degradation and meals insecurity. The involvement of trade giants like Yara and organizations like AGRA suggests continued adherence to a flawed mannequin that has persistently did not alleviate starvation and malnutrition, a concern shared by the Alliance for Meals Sovereignty in Africa, which represents greater than 200 million stakeholders. However as a substitute of specializing in boosting short-term soil fertility, substituting one chemical with the opposite, and thus endorsing the fertiliser trade’s self-serving narratives, the summit ought to take into account longer-term objectives, equivalent to enhancing soil well being and soil life, strengthening the resilience of farming communities, and guaranteeing the sustainability of meals programs.
Productiveness may be maintained with out industrial nitrogen fertilisers, as proven in long-term trials throughout Africa. Options embrace diversifying cropping programs, producing natural fertiliser, and planting legumes. Policymakers and stakeholders should transfer past the simplistic promotion of artificial fertilisers, even these labeled as “inexperienced,” and embrace a extra clear and evidence-based strategy. Solely then can we actually handle the basis causes of starvation and malnutrition in Africa and around the globe.
Silke Bollmohr, Founding father of EcoTrac Consulting, is Senior Coverage Adviser for World Meals Coverage and Agriculture at INKOTA netzwerk. Harun Warui is Mission Lead of the Path to Meals Initiative on the Heinrich Böll Basis workplace in Nairobi.
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