Fertilizer Production in Africa as a Way to Minimise Fertilizer Importation Cost

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a region that is often divided for different types of analysis based on social, economic, cultural, political and historical subregional characteristics. For a more productive division for discussion in this paper, SSA is considered as comprised of six distinct regions: East Africa, Sudan-Sahel, West Africa, the Central Africa, Southern Africa and the Islands of the Indian Ocean. Subsistence farming dominates the farming system in SSA. There is little application of technology, particularly with food crops, leading to low agricultural productivity. Consequently, health of African soils has become a constant challenge for farmers and agriculturists in the continent and conflicting interests in the exploitation of soil resources by various stakeholders has led to mismanagement; and in some cases degradation of soils. In this paper also, soil productivity maintenance remains a major environmental issue in countries of SSA, low soil fertility inevitably leads to low agricultural productivity and agricultural development is fundamentally affected by productivity status of land resources. Poor soil management and the fragile nature of tropical soils generally account for heavy nutrient losses through soil erosion and leaching of soil nutrient with adverse effects on environmental quality. In view of this, the paper discusses fertilizer assessment in SSA, production and utilization and how it affects the environment. The growing contrast between the productive roles played by fertilizer in other regions of the world and the very limited use of fertilizer in SSA calls for increased use of fertilizer in SSA if they must experience the green revolution as obtained in other regions of the world.