By Yetneberk Tadele, 23 June 2013
Even though farmers have reaped the benefits in earlier crop seasons by applying fertilisers, its current price and limited access to credit prohibit them from repeating the previous trend.
Farmers are recommended to use one quintal of DAP and one quintal of Urea for a hectare of land in which the quantity varies based on the type of the soil.
Already in the midst of a long vacation, following the 10th grade national exam, Getachew Beyene, a 24-year-old farmer, was doing, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013, what he has been doing since the age of 10 – ploughing his Father’s farm.
Getachew is the youngest of 11 children in a sizable family. Beyene, his father, is a farmer in Zegula, one of the 25 kebeles in Dangla Wereda, 486Km North-West of Addis Abeba, in the Amhara Regional State.
A week ago, Getachew was ploughing the family’s 3.5ha of land, off the highway, a few kilometres on route to Bahir Dar from Dangla. The family predominantly harvests teff, sorghum and corn, each producing no less than 10 quintals a year.
Getachew is the last of Beyene’s children still living with his family. He, too, may be gone come September, if he scores sufficiently well in the national exam. On Tuesday, he was doing the farm work assisted by a hired hand, who is paid 50 Br a day.
His departure, though, will not come before he has made sure that all the farm land has been ploughed and sowed on.
Last week, was far too early to start sowing and using the big booster fertiliser – a component agricultural extension workers across the country are pushing farmers to use, in order to increase the nation’s productivity.
Poor growth in agricultural productivity was a source of disappointment among leaders of the ruling EPRDF party, during their March congress, in Bahir Dar, Amhara’s capital, 88Km north of where Getachew lives. The 6.95pc growth achieved in 2011/12 was only half the amount the government had planned for. This has led to political pressure on extension workers to push farmers to employ harvest increasing methods.
The use of fertilisers and selected seeds are two of the methods used regularly by farmers across the country. Yet to be distributed, the Zegula Kebele Farmers Cooperative has 2,500ql of fertiliser, manufactured in Saudi Arabia by Ma’aden Phosphate Company, and supplied to Ethiopia by Ameropa AG, from its warehouse. The amount is lower, by 500ql, than last year’s, because there was excess from the previous year’s supply, but the warehouse keepers believe that the zone’s Agriculture Bureau has supplied them with enough product, in time for the farming season. They have also received seed for maize, which is priced at 197 Br for 14Kg.
The Cooperative, to which the Beyene family belongs, has 2,500 members. Its warehouse is located approximately one kilometre from the family farm. The family may buy five quintals of fertiliser for the current season, out of the total of 977,000 availed to farmers, nationally.
In another part of the country, a farmer – who enjoyed a bigger harvest last year, using fertiliser – is prepping his farm for yet another round of use. Kassa Mamo, a father of six, lives in Adulala Hate Haroreti kebele, in Eastern Oromia. He attributes his 40ql harvest to applying fertiliser on his two-hectare farm. This farming season he intends to lease two more hectares from the neighbourhood.
When the local development agent appeared at his door to advise on the use of fertilisers, Kassa readily indicated that he was acquiring four quintals each of DAP and Urea, although he would later rethink the quantity.
The planning process of fertiliser import begins with an assessment of demand, for the next agricultural year, at a local level. The wereda Agricultural Bureau collects data on expected local fertiliser demand, which is provided by agricultural extension workers, working at the kebele level.
The current season has come with a little surprise for Kassa; last year he said he bought DAP for 1,440 Br a quintal and Urea for 1,100 Br (the Union gives slightly higher prices for both: 1,457 Br and 1,175 Br, respectively). He is now concerned that he will have to pay 64 Br and 113 Br more, for DAP and Urea, respectively (using the Union’s figures, he will actually be paying 47 Br more for DAP and 38 Br more for Urea). He said this difference is too much for him, despite his increased production last year because of the fertiliser. Having failed to get a loan from his neighbours, he says, he has decided to reduce his fertiliser order by half.
“Sadly, I have decided to sow other kinds of crops that do not need fertilisers on two hectares, where I was prepared to sow teff,” he told Fortune.
The Erer Farmers’ Cooperative Union, from which Kassa’s fertiliser demand will be served, has four member cooperatives: Ade’a, Liben, Ginbichu and Akaki. The farmers’ cooperatives in these weredas get their agricultural inputs from the Union.
Based on the demand assessment collected by the wereda’s Agriculture Bureau, the Federal Agricultural Inputs Supply Enterprise (AISE) has availed 8,1569ql of DAP and 4,6635ql of Urea, for the 2013/14 season in addition to the last year’s leftover, across the four cooperatives, according to Mekonen Haile, manager of the Union.
The Union’s store at Adama is currently selling a quintal of DAP for 1,504 Br and a quintal of Urea for 1,213 Br, although the price goes up when the distance increases, according to Mekonnen.
The price escalation is attributed to the fertiliser that was transferred from the previous year’s stock by the Union. The Union has 29,204ql of DAP and 12,617ql of Urea in the store, transferred from the previous year.
“We are paying the bank 11.4 Br a month in credit interest, as well as one Birr warehouse fees, a month for each quintal. That leads us to have to recalculate our expenses on the current price of the fertiliser,” Mekonen said.
In addition to the 477,000tns of fertiliser imported this year, the Federal Agricultural Inputs Supply Enterprise has 500,000tns in store from last year. However, the Ade’a Union managed to deliver only 55pc of the supply, as of Monday, June 17, 2013.
“When the farmers notice that there will be a change in the weather condition, they alter the type of seed they sow and reduce the amount of fertiliser they have requested”, says Kebede Tulu, production capacity building team leader at Ade’a Wereda Agricultural Bureau, in explaining the problem.
A study, conducted in 2012, by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on the supply and distribution of fertiliser in Ethiopia, indicates that regional holding companies, such as – Ambassel, Guna, Wondo, and Dinsho; Cooperative Unions and private companies were involved, alongside the AISE, in the import and distribution of fertiliser, following market liberalisation in Ethiopia. However, following the changes in 2008, when the AISE became the sole importer, the role of the Unions is now limited to distribution, from central warehouses to primary cooperatives.
The study found mixed views about giving the monopoly of power to the AISE. While the centralised procurement system has proved useful, with respect to ensuring the allocation of foreign exchange and timely fertiliser procurement, many cooperative leaders thought that centralised importing through the AISE had increased fertiliser costs.
The AISE supplies the fertilisers it has imported to Unions in the country, based on their demands.
“However, regions have their own strategies to sell the fertiliser,” Sayfu Aseffa, agricultural inputs loan senior expert at the Enterprise, says. “Except Oromia Region, which decided not to sell on credit, two years ago, the Southern Region requires 25pc to 50pc down payment. Amhara Region makes credit sales only for dry areas and Tigray Region gives credit for those who cannot afford to buy.”
Getachew, in Amhara, finds himself in the region where full payment is required.
“They could have at least offered us half the amount on credit,” Getachew told Fortune, as he unyoked Boren and Jember, the names by which the pair of farm oxen go in his family.
According to Seyfu, it has been very challenging for the government to collect the credit given to the farmers, with a lot of money yet to be collected in many regions.
In 2011/12, the AISE imported 560,000tns of DAP and 328tns of Urea, for a total of 8.4 billion Br; this year it reduced its imports significantly, to 350,000tns of DAP and 127,000tns of Urea, for a total of 2.6 billion Br, because of product left over from the previous year.
The price at the central store in Addis Abeba is 1252 Br, for DAP, and 980 Br for Urea fertiliser, a quintal.
According to the IFPRI’s study, farmers have claimed that they could not afford fertiliser at current prices. They said that fertiliser prices have been increasing since 2009, with credit being extremely limited and cash sales openly promoted by cooperatives and agriculture officials.
“Does the farmer have enough money to buy all the fertiliser he needs?” asks an expert at the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), adding that a survey by the Agency had indicated that there was a decline in fertiliser consumption in Oromia and the Southern regions, following the strict cash sale.
The Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture are currently working on reintroducing fertiliser credit sales using microfinance institutions.
Until then, farmers, such as Getachew and Kassa will either have to come up with the cash or abstain from using fertiliser, even though they have apparently already reaped the benefits in earlier crop seasons.
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