The African Development Bank (AfDB) has urged development finance institutions, NGOs, farmer cooperatives and the private sector to develop more effective financing solutions for Africa’s fertiliser value chains
The Bank’s call to action came during the Argus Africa Fertiliser Conference held on 19 February.
The conference’s theme was “Supporting the fertiliser value chain to improve agricultural productivity and economic growth in the region.”
“Appropriate investment and financing of the entire fertiliser value chain have become a precondition for achieving our continental objectives in the area of agricultural development,” said Marie-Claire Kalihangabo, coordinator of the Africa Fertiliser Financing Mechanism, during a forum on the sidelines of the conference.
AFFM is a fund managed by the AfDB to accelerate agriculture development in line with the Bank’s High-5 priority, Africa Food Security Vision, the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
The bank and AFFM staff presented tools and strategies to remove pain points in the fertiliser value chains of African countries, including fertiliser guarantee instruments, loans to support fertiliser production as well as access to inputs like seeds and crop protectants.
“The success of Africa’s agriculture agenda requires a synergistic approach that will bring down barriers and silos that are still hampering the development of the fertiliser sector in Africa,” said Mahamadou Nassirou Ba, economic affairs officer at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
The provided an opportunity for Mali to showcase how effective public-private collaboration and better organisation of value-chain actors helped raise the country’s fertiliser use to 50kg of nutrients per ha. In achieving this, the country met a target set in the 2006 Abuja Declaration on Fertiliser for the African Green Revolution.
