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Regional Updates from FEWS.net

Africa’s fertilizer markets face significant constraints on both the supply and the demand side, including a lack of infrastructure, high costs to both produce and use, and low public-private investment. However, the challenges of climate change and population growth are now encouraging many governments to tackle much-needed market reforms.

These were some of the takeaway messages from last week’s virtual dialogue on fertilizer use in Africa, held on December 10.

The dialogue addressed four questions:

In 2006, the African Union Special Summit of the Heads of State and Government, adopted the 12-Resolution “ Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution” , which aimed to increase Africa’s fertilizer use from the then-average 8kg per hectare to 50kg per hectare by 2015.  According to the International Fertilizer Industry Association, however, average fertilizer use in the region today is still only 12kg of fertilizer per hectare, compared to 150kg per hectare average in Asia.

Macroeconomic policies (monetary and fiscal policies, exchange rate policies, and trade policies) can significantly impact agricultural development and food security, and vice versa. This complex relationship is the subject of a new book , Macroeconomics, Agriculture, and Food Security: A Guide to Policy Analysis in Developing Countries , written by IFPRI Visiting Senior Research Fellow Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla.

Comme de nombreux gouvernements de pays en développement, le gouvernement du Malawi est intervenu sur les marchés agricoles du pays afin d'assurer un approvisionnement alimentaire adéquat à des prix raisonnables.