Cultivating The Future: Fertilizer Summit Set For May

 

The Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit will be held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 7–9, 2024.  

This is an African Union gathering that will bring together African Heads of State and Government, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, high-ranking government officials, senior policymakers, and private-sector participants.  

Other attendees will include farmers’ organisations and development agencies, such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), researchers and scientists, and representatives from major donor organisations.

The Summit’s goal is to emphasise the critical role of fertiliser and soil health in promoting pro-poor productivity development in African agriculture and to reach an agreement on an African Fertiliser and Soil Health Action Plan. 

In June 2006, the African Union’s Heads of State and Government endorsed the Abuja Declaration on Fertiliser for the Africa Green Revolution, a continental effort to reverse the troubling trend of low soil productivity in Africa. 

The Declaration focuses on major priorities for agricultural growth, food security, and rural development in Africa, with a particular emphasis on fertiliser use. 

It recommended increasing fertiliser use from 8 kg/(nutrients)/ha to 50 kg/(nutrients)/ha in ten years. 

Other targets include establishing an African Fertiliser Financing Mechanism (AFFM) with the goal of improving agricultural productivity by providing financing to boost fertiliser use in Africa in order to meet the Abuja Declaration’s target of 50 kg of nutrients per hectare.

The Summit’s goal is to emphasise the critical role of fertiliser and soil health in promoting pro-poor productivity development in African agriculture and to reach an agreement on an African Fertiliser and Soil Health Action Plan.