Sowing seeds of change to build soil health and food systems' resilience in Africa

Earlier this month, we launched the Africa Regional Hub for Fertilizer and Soil Health, a groundbreaking initiative to enhance agricultural productivity and food security while addressing climate challenges. The Hub, financed to the tune of $10 million for the next five years by the World Bank through the Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project, aims to implement and coordinate subregional programs for monitoring soil health and fertility in Africa.

Challenges for agricultural productivity, including climate change, pose serious threats to the livelihoods and well-being of millions of people across Africa. One main cause of this is the health and fertility of the continent’s soils. Two-thirds of the land available for production is considered degraded, resulting in low crop and livestock yields, poverty, and the decline of natural resources. The average fertilizer application rate in Sub Saharan Africa is 22 kilograms per hectare, compared to a world average seven-times higher (146 kilograms per hectare), while skyrocketing and highly volatile fertilizer prices reduce their application even further. Moreover, the fertilizers applied are not always suitable to the needs of the soil and crops, or can be of low quality, and complementary inputs and advisory services are usually missing leading to low efficiency and sometimes even further soil degradation in the long run.

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