Fertilizer Assessment: Increased Amounts Required in Ethiopia

Printed in IFDC Report Volume 38, No. 1 (2013)  http://www.amitsa.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=32d915bc-8540-4b19-b8af-708e2be4a1f9

According to a recent IFDC assessment, Ethiopia must double its fertilizer use to meet the nation’s Growth Transformation Plan (GTP) crop production targets by 2015 – a commitment that is aligned with the broader Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) goals. However, meeting this target will be difficult. The number and complexity of constraints facing Ethiopia’s agriculture sector are many, just as they are in many other African nations. Bottlenecks in procurement, infrastructure and logistics top the list, followed by limited credit and financial services, poor research and extension services, agro-dealer capacity and farmer training.

The IFDC assessment discusses options to bolster investment in research and extension services; strong private sector involvement in product importation, storage and distribution; the establishment of fertilizer blending facilities to increase product diversity; and a voucher program to increase product use, along with other areas of supply chain improvement.

A farmer proudly displays her chickpea harvest. Photo courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

CAADP, the agricultural program of the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU-NEPAD), addresses policy and capacity issues across Africa’s agriculture sectors. It represents African leaders’ collective vision for agriculture, providing a collaborative platform for nations to clearly define agricultural growth goals. Through individual Country Investment Plans (CIPs), 34 countries, including Ethiopia, have committed to raise agricultural expenditures to at least 10 percent of national budgets and target 6 percent annual agricultural growth.

In support of these CAADP efforts, the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP), a partnership among a number of development institutions (including IFDC), focuses on increasing agriculture market access at the regional and country levels. AFAP fosters private sector participation and investment in national and regional fertilizer value chains.

In order to help meet CAADP targets, IFDC is conducting a series of fertilizer country assessments funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The purpose of these assessments is to estimate the fertilizer requirements needed to achieve individual country agricultural growth targets and offer policy options to ensure that these levels of fertilizer use are achieved. These assessments will be used by AFAP to identify constraints to private sector investments in the agriculture sector and to develop strategies to alleviate the constraints.

The research quantifies current use and future fertilizer requirements for up to 12 countries based on their respective CIPs, while also identifying key constraints and opportunities. The most recent report, “Ethiopia Fertilizer Assessment,” provides estimates of the level of fertilizer consumption required to meet the targets for crop yield increases in Ethiopia’s GTP. In addition to these estimates, the study analyzes the challenges in the fertilizer value chain and offers policy options that will support the achievement of these consumption levels.

The assessment was written by Dr. Peter Heffernan, chief program officer, Dr. Porfirio Fuentes, senior scientist-economics and trade, and Dr. Joshua Ariga, scientist-economics. The study estimates that Ethiopia must increase its consumption to nearly 1.2 mmt of fertilizer products (in the form of urea, diammonium phosphate [DAP] and muriate of potash [MOP]) to meet the GTP targets.

The Port of Djibouti, in the neighboring country of the same name, serves as Ethiopia’s primary fertilizer import hub.

In addition to the fertilizer estimates, the report identifies specific constraints in achieving the nation’s fertilizer market investment goals and offers options to increase market efficiency. “Achieving this level of fertilizer use requires addressing existing constraints and improving the value chains so that larger volumes of product can be handled without significant problems,” states the report.

“Despite increased fertilizer consumption due to Government of Ethiopia efforts over the last decade, Ethiopia still faces food shortages and high food prices. According to the report, although intensification continues to be necessary for increased agricultural productivity in the face of land scarcity and low production, it is important to address these problems by establishing an approach that ensures smallholders have access to the right technologies in the form that is appropriate to their local conditions and is accompanied with the right information. A judicious mix of private and public investments with consistently applied legal and regulatory guidelines can contribute to the successful development of input markets in Ethiopia.”

The Ethiopia assessment is the fifth in the series. Fertilizer country assessments of Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania were previously conducted by IFDC.

Sourced here:  http://www.ifdc.org/Nations/Ethiopia/Articles-(1)/Fertilizer-Assessment-Increased-Amounts-Required-i/

See also:  Potash Fertilizers in Africa: Background, Assessment and Prospects

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