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How Far Has Africa Come? So Much Work Remains!1 comment

Abuja Declaration

Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution

Working together to improve African crop yields (Photo credit: Gates Foundation)

By Cambodine

Given the importance of fertilizer to the continent’s food production efforts, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has declared that Africa’s economic development vision must be based on raising and sustaining higher rates of economic growth (7 percent per year). To implement this vision, African heads of state and government adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) which calls for a 6% annual growth in agricultural production, as a framework for the restoration of agricultural growth, food security and rural development in Africa.

African farmers face a variety of constraints, including low productivity of cultivated lands, limited access to new agricultural technologies and the lack of markets for their products. Without adequate inputs, farmers cannot meet the food needs of their own families, much less those of a rapidly growing population. Regarding food security in Africa, farmers will need to shift from low yielding, extensive land practices to more intensive, higher-yielding practices, with increased use of improved seeds, fertilizers and irrigation.
A move toward reducing hunger on the continent must begin by the continent addressing its severely depleted soils through multiple agricultural land conservation, protection and management approaches. Due to decades of soil nutrient mining, Africa’s soils have become the poorest in the world. It is estimated that the continent loses over US$4 billion worth of soil nutrients each year, severely eroding its ability to feed itself. Yet farmers neither have access to fertilizers nor can they afford inputs needed to add life to their soils. No region of the world has been able to expand agricultural growth rates and tackle hunger without increasing fertilizer use.
Africa’s fertilizer use averages only eight kilograms per hectare, that is, only 10% of the world’s average. Addressing Africa’s fertilizer crisis therefore requires urgent and bold actions. As African leaders convened in Abuja, they were keen to show their strong and unanimous commitment to achieve the African Green Revolution by taking immediate actions to solve Africa’s fertilizer crisis.

Relative population growth through 2100 - fig. 1

& soil nutrient (potash) depletion through 2011 - fig.2

The African Union Ministers of Agriculture convened in Abuja on 12 June 2006 for the Africa Fertilizer Summit:

• Recognizing that Africa needs a Green Revolution which is long overdue and yet constitutes the way of getting African farmers out of the poverty trap by achieving food security and other relevant the Millennium Development Goals
• Recognizing that fertilizer is crucial for achieving an African Green Revolution in the face of rapidly rising population and declining soil fertility
• Realizing that most farmers in Africa are poor, have virtually no access to fertilizer and that the poorest of them urgently need special attention
• Recognizing the urgent need for a strategic investment program to increase the availability and use of fertilizer alongside with other inputs to usher in the Green Revolution on the African continent
• Declare fertilizer, from both inorganic and organic sources, a strategic commodity without borders
• Resolve that the African Union Member States will accelerate the timely access of farmers to fertilizers:

1. Given the strategic importance of fertilizer in achieving the African Green Revolution to end hunger, the African Union Member States resolve to increase the level of use of fertilizer from the current average of 8 kilograms per hectare to an average of at least 50 kilograms per hectare by 2015.
2. By mid-2007, the African Union Member States and the Regional Economic Communities should take appropriate measures to reduce the cost of fertilizer procurement at national and regional levels especially through the harmonization of policies and regulations to ensure duty- and tax-free movement across regions, and the development of capacity for quality control. As an immediate measure, we recommend the elimination of taxes and tariffs on fertilizer and on fertilizer raw materials.
3. By mid-2007, the African Governments must take concrete measures to improve farmers’ access to fertilizers, by developing and scaling up input dealers’ and community-based networks across rural areas. The Private Sector and Development Partners are hereby requested to support such actions.
4. By 2007, the African Union Member States must take concrete measures to specially address the fertilizer needs of farmers, especially women, and to develop and strengthen the capacity of youth, farmers’ associations, civil society organizations, and the private sector.
5. With immediate effect, the African Union Member States must improve farmers’ access to fertilizer, by granting, with the support of Africa’s Development Partners, targeted subsidies in favour of the fertilizer sector, with special attention to poor farmers.
6. The African Union Member States should take immediate steps to accelerate investment in infrastructure, particularly transport, fiscal incentives, strengthening farmers’ organizations, and other measures to improve output market incentives.
7. The African Union Member States should establish national financing facilities for input suppliers to accelerate access to credit at the local and national level, with specific attention to women.
8. The African Union Member States, hereby request the establishment of Regional Fertilizer Procurement and Distribution Facilities with the support of the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa, the Regional Economic Communities and the Regional Development Banks, through strategic public-private partnerships by the end of 2007.
9. Given the extensive fertilizer raw material resources in Africa and the fact that they are underutilized in many parts of the continent, the African Union Member States undertake to promote national/regional fertilizer production and intra-regional fertilizer trade to capture a bigger market and take advantage of economies of scale through appropriate measures such as tax incentives and infrastructure development. This should be supported by the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa, the Regional Development Banks, the Regional Economic Communities, other Development Partners, and the Private Sector.
10. The African Union Member States should take specific action to improve farmer access to quality seeds, irrigation facilities, extension services, market information, and soil nutrient testing and mapping to facilitate effective and efficient use of inorganic and organic fertilizers, while paying attention to the environment.
11. The African Development Bank, with the support of the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission, is called to establish, by 2007, an Africa Fertilizer Development Financing Mechanism that will meet the financing requirements of the various actions agreed upon by the Summit. We, the African Union Member States, undertake to support the establishment of this facility and will pledge resources for its immediate operation.
12. The African Union Member States request the African Union Commission and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development to set up a mechanism to monitor and evaluate the implementation of this resolution. This should be done in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank. The African Union Commission should give progress report to the African Heads of State at every sixth-monthly African Union Summit, starting in January 2007.
    

    Satellite image of Africa, showing the ecological break that defines the sub-Saharan area (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

African Fertilizer Development Financing Fund

The Fertilizer Fund is designed to mobilize and pool resources to finance, in particular, fertilizer production, distribution, procurement and use in Africa.

The Fertilizer Fund’s resources shall be devoted primarily to:

• facilitation activities including policy formulation, technical assistance, information dissemination, law reform, and project preparation;
• the development of Africa’s fertilizer manufacturing capacity;
• providing credit guarantees for fertilizer importers and distributors;
• support establishment of regional fertilizer procurement and distribution facilities; and
• developing financing mechanisms in support of fertilizer production, distribution, and agriculture generally.

Subsequently…..

African Fertilizer Financing Mechanism

• Date of agreement: December 4, 2007
• Current volume of the fund: AfDB Grant of UA 5 million; USD 5 million from Nigeria equivalent to 50% of their pledged US$ 10 million; US$ 150,000 representing partial payment of pledge of IFAD’s US$ 200,000 pledge. Excluding the Bank’s contribution, which does not count towards AFFM’s legal operationalization, a shortfall of US$ 4,544,107 exists for the Fund to be declared legally operational.

Background and Objectives

The call for the establishment of the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) was one of the major resolutions of the June 2006 African Union’s (AU) Africa Fertilizer Summit in Abuja. At the Summit, African Heads of State and some eminent persons resolved that it was necessary to establish an AFFM for the purpose of increasing fertilizer use in Africa so as to boost agricultural productivity. This in turn, will contribute to economic growth, food security, and sustainable management of natural resources in Africa.

With the support of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the AU Commission, the AFFM was established in March 2007, and is hosted and managed by the Bank in Tunis.

On 4 December, 2007, the Bank’s Board of Directors endorsed the legal instrument and the frame work for the establishment of the AFFM. The AFFM Secretariat has been operational at the Bank with Bank support.

Areas of Focus / Sub-Sectors

The AFFM’s aim is to support Africa’s agricultural sector. Key areas of intervention and support are:

• Facilitation activities including policy formulation, technical assistance, information dissemination, law reform, and project preparation.
• Development of Africa’s fertilizer manufacturing capacity.
• Provision of credit guarantees for fertilizer importers and distributors.
• Support for the establishment of regional fertilizer procurement and distribution facilities.
• Development of financing mechanisms in support of fertilizer production, distribution, and agriculture generally.

Target Beneficiaries

African small and large scale farmers and the African fertilizer industrial sub-sector, and agricultural research institutions and the private sector involved in agro-inputs trade.

Results and Milestones

Main achievements to date are as follows:

• Established the AFFM Secretariat at the Bank in March 2007.
• Establishedi the AFFM Governing Council (GC).
• Organized the GC’s inaugural meeting in Tunis in November 2009.
• Prepared the following operational documents, which were endorsed by the GC: AFFM operational strategy, three-year indicative operational program (2009-2011), and AFFM operational manual on rules of procedure.
• Defined administrative arrangements, including implementation roles, budgeting and opened the AFFM account.
• Developed communication tools, including a brochure and a logo.
• The Bank has received and is considering proposals for possible AFFM support including a) feasibility study to establish a fertilizer production plant for the East African Community (EAC); b) Fertilizer Procurement Facility Pilot for the EAC; c) exploitation of phosphate rock deposits in DRC and Mali; and d) bio-fertilizer production in Cameroon.
• Developed a draft resource mobilization and advocacy plan.
• Bank participation in high level AU meetings to inform stakeholders about the benefits of and progress on the AFFM and mobilize funding for it.
• Ensured continuous liaison with member states, the GC and the AUC.
• Administration and Governance Structure
• The Bank’s Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing the general operations of the mechanism and approves all financing. The Board is also responsible for approving the mechanism’s annual budget and financial statements.
• The AFFM relies on its governing council to ensure broad donor and stakeholder participation. The governing council includes representatives of donors, African farmers unions, fertilizer industry experts and representatives of African Ministers of Agriculture. They are responsible for providing guidance on the mechanism’s strategic direction.
• At the Bank, the day-to-day management of the activities of the AFFM is supervised by an Officer in Charge who reports to the Director of the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department (OSAN).

Major Activities in 2011-2012 / Additional Resources Required

The main activities planned for 2011 are scaling up the AFFM resource mobilization drive so that the Mechanism can be declared legally operational by the Bank, undertaking preparatory work for commencing studies related to the requests for financing received by the Bank, and following up with stakeholders such as the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) and the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) for their technical and/or financial support to the AFFM.

Experiences, Challenges, and Ways Forward

Although field activities have not yet commenced, much has been achieved in terms of preparatory work including hosting and operationalizing the Secretariat at the Bank, as well as mobilization of support for the mechanism through consultation with stakeholders. The mechanism enjoys strong support from the African political leadership. In accordance with the Instrument establishing the AFFM, for it to become legally operational, the Mechanism needs financial contributions and/or Instruments of Commitment from African governments and donors in the amount of US$ 10 million.

Technical Department and Task Manager Benedict S. Kanu, Lead Expert, Agriculture and Agro-industry Division, Agriculture and Agro-industry Department, Tel: [phone]

Partnerships and Cooperation Unit Focal Point Khadidia Diabi, Principal Cooperation Officer, Tel: [phone]

Communicating with AFFM (Notices and Requests): Notices or requests to the fertilizer fund should be in writing and should be delivered at the following address below or any other address provided by the Bank:

The African Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) (Special AfDB-administered Fund)

Agence Temporaire de Relocalisation 13 Avenue du Ghana, Angle Rues Hedi Nouira & Pierre de Coubertin B.P. 323 Tunis 1002 Tunis Belvedere, Tunisia Telephone: [phone] Telefax : (+ 216) 71 25 31 57 E-Mail: [e-mail] Attention: The Coordinator

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