Rethinking and boosting soil fertility: an emergency for food sovereignty in West Africa
While Africa's population is expected to double by 2050, one-fifth of the continent's arable land has been severely degraded since the mid-20th century. This loss of soil productivity is undermining the continent's food sovereignty and security objectives. As part of its partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), the FARM Foundation is publishing an exclusive study on " The challenges of renewing soil fertility in West Africa ", based on a regional approach and case studies in Senegal and Benin. This work highlights the urgent need to move from often insufficient mineral fertilization to an approach combining organo-mineral fertilization and agroecological practices. A challenge for a region that produces little or no fertilizer... and is suffering from the global surge in prices (x 2.7 between 2020 and 2022 for potash, x 4.5 for nitrogen). The FARM Foundation highlights promising solutions and raises a key issue for African countries: their ability to access mineral fertilizers, whose global reserves are finite and which have been largely consumed by rich countries.
Exhausted and unproductive soils
In West Africa, the ability to meet the food needs of a growing population and the region's economic development are threatened by soil depletion. The significant deterioration in soil fertility is the result of interconnected factors: rapid population growth has led to an intensification/specialization of agricultural practices and a change in traditional pastoral routes. Fallow periods, which could last several decades, favoring beneficial fertility transfers between agriculture and livestock farming, have been considerably reduced. This degradation phenomenon is amplified by several external factors: climate change, difficult access to organic matter, inter-ethnic conflicts that disrupt agricultural practices, and the natural fragility of the region's soils: they contain 0.5 to 1.5 % of organic matter compared to 1.5 to 2.5 % on average in Northern Europe, for example. The consequences of this continuous degradation are manifested by a chain of negative reactions: a decrease in the concentration of microorganisms in the soil, weakening of the soil structure and progressive depletion of mineral resources.
Three major fertility parameters are affected:
1/ biological fertility: reduction in microbial activity and soil biodiversity;
2/ physical fertility: degradation of the structure and water retention capacity;
3/ chemical fertility: depletion of essential nutrients for crops.
Innovate, train, unite
The FARM Foundation study suggests several possible levers of action to restore soil fertility, combining organo-mineral soil fertilization and agro-ecological practices to promote sustainable renewal of West African soils, focusing on both large-scale production (rice, cocoa, cotton) and small producers who play a major role in food production in the region:
• Diversification of agricultural practices: crop rotations, crop associations with nitrogen-fixing legumes, agroforestry and extension of fallow periods.
• Valorization of organic fertilizers: development of local production of composts, manures and biofertilizers, in addition to mineral inputs.
• Strengthening agricultural advice and training: technical support for producers, development of farm advice integrating all crops and livestock, and training in sustainable soil management.
• Support for access to organic and mineral fertilizers (targeted subsidies, credit support) and promotion of small-scale mechanization adapted to family farms.
Fertilizer market: small players… high prices
FARM's work highlights that fertilizer use (NPK = nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) remains low: 15 kg/ha of NPK in West Africa compared to an average of 120 kg/ha of NPK in the rest of the world and 25 kg/ha across the African continent. While they are not the only solution for fertilizing land, fertilizers are an essential pillar when few agroecological alternatives to phosphorus and potassium are available. This is obvious for Africa, which, according to the UN, will be home to 1/4 of the population within 25 years.
" Faced with the progressive decrease in the availability of essential mineral elements, particularly potash and phosphate, a supply of mineral fertilizers adapted to soils and plants remains necessary to avoid the depletion of soil reserves. This supply, still too low today, is however conditional on the capacity of producers to physically and economically access fertilizers which are often imported and subsidized (…) this in association with the traditional practices of small producers and family farming which has always been resilient. »analysisThibaut Soyez, Project Manager at the FARM Foundation.
Demographic giants, West African countries are now "dwarfs" in the fertilizer market, which is characterized by a concentration of suppliers and the power of highly structured buyers (USA, China, Brazil, India, etc.). They remain heavily dependent on external markets for their supplies and are subject to volatile prices, sensitive to global events and which have in fact seen sharp increases in recent years. The absence of local potash production, the concentration of nitrogen and phosphate production, and dependence on a few suppliers expose the region to major risks for food security and the stability of agricultural systems.
> Focus on fertilizer suppliers and price trends between 2020 and 2022
• Phosphate: Morocco holds 70% of the world's reserves. A significant deposit was also discovered in Norway in 2023. The price of DAP (commercial product) increased 3.2-fold between 2020 and 2022.
• Potash: Belarus, Russia and Canada are the major suppliers worldwide. The price of MOP (commercial product) increased 2.7-fold between 2020 and 2022. NB: No potash reserves in West Africa.
• Nitrogen: there are several production areas in the sub-region: Nigeria, which has large gas reserves but exports most of it, and Senegal. 1/3 of the nitrogen imported into West Africa comes from the Black Sea over the last decade. The price of urea (a commercial product) increased 4.5-fold between 2020 and 2022. NB: Nitrogen is produced from energy and air.
Note: Supplier countries are not necessarily those that develop commercial products.
With few agroecological alternatives for the supply of phosphorus and potassium, and given the growing need for these two fertilizers, the FARM Foundation naturally raises the question of strengthening West Africa's position on the global market. This involves investing in local fertilizer production, particularly by developing regional phosphate reserves and supporting investment in processing units. Increasing intraregional and continental fertilizer trade and encouraging cooperation policies between countries to pool resources and optimize distribution could also help reduce dependence and the impacts of geopolitical shocks. Morocco and its partnership policy with several West African stakeholders are already playing a significant role in this regard.
Mineral fertilizers—nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash—are central to global agricultural productivity. They have enabled the countries of the North to achieve food abundance, but at the cost of massive consumption of resources that, like phosphorus and potash, are limited and non-renewable. At a time when the world's population is growing and food security in the South is becoming a global issue, should we think of inequalities in access to fertilizers as a debt owed by the North to the South, such as the "carbon" debt?
The FARM Foundation's work on the challenges of renewing soil fertility in West Africa will be available on June 24 via three detailed publications on the Foundation's website: https://fondation-farm.org/publications/
