Food crises worsen in Africa as fertiliser prices climb
Sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of the Ukraine war has driven up the cost of fertilizer in Africa, consequentially increasing the cost of food in some of the world’s poorest countries.
The prices of nitrogen-based fertilisers that provide a third of nutrients used to grow crops have gone up as natural gas used as feedstock for its production became costlier. About 15 per cent of global crop nutrient supplies come from Europe that is hardest hit by the scarcity of natural gas and the resulting high prices.
A report by the Financial Times stated “Growers worldwide have cut fertiliser usage in response to the price rises, which threatens to reduce food production and deepen the global food crisis. Smallholder farmers in Africa are likely to be worst hit,” according to analysts. Cameroon is the largest net fertilizer importer in the continent according to data from trade Data Monitor, followed by Ghana, Mauritania, Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other major importers were Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya and South Africa. Even though African countries typically consume less fertiliser than other parts of the world, the impact of prices would be higher, analysts told FT as most countries relied on homegrown food.
“For Africa, removing what little fertiliser is traditionally applied has a disproportionate effect on crop production, resulting in food shortfalls that are being compounded by current drought levels,” an analyst at commodities data and research group Gro Intelligence, Will Osnato was quoted as saying.
McKinsey consultants stated “The war’s disruption to the supply of key commodities including fertilisers, coming on top of the coronavirus pandemic and droughts in many regions, could cause social unrest on the continent. The consequences of a looming food crisis may be more pronounced than during the 2007-08 global food crisis and the 2010-11 food price hikes that contributed to the Arab spring.”
Reports from Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon noted that the price of fertiliser had risen by more than 50% since February. A director at Dutch non-profit, IDH, which supports sustainable trade in developing countries, Jonas Mva Mva said: “There is a huge, huge crisis in food security in sub-Saharan Africa.” A disturbing revelation from a survey conducted by Farmerline, an agritech firm based in Ghana showed that more than half of 178 growers interviewed had not applied fertiliser to their fields at all in 2022, when regularly most of the farmers should have finished full application of fertiliser into their fields by August.
In Kenya, a June study by the International Food Policy research Institute noted that higher prices “especially fertiliser prices” would reduce gross domestic product by 0.8% and increase poverty rates in Kenya. As a result, an estimated additional 1.4 million people could fall below the poverty line ($1.9 per day).
Gro projected that reduced fertiliser use could “decrease crop production by up to six per cent as the country relies on the exports of agricultural crops like tea, coffee and flowers. The organisation also forecasted that high price of fertilisers would result in a global production loss of about 1.8% of total corn, wheat, rice and soyabean production in the 2022-23 crop year. “The losses will vary by region, with African output predicted to fall by as much as 12 per cent.”
