Participants in the just-ended West Africa Fertiliser Stakeholders Forum organised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have proposed the establishment of an ECOWAS fertiliser federation to facilitate the manufacture, distribution and application of fertiliser to help achieve set targets.
The two-day forum, which was held in Accra, was supported by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) West Africa Fertiliser Programme (USAID/WAFP) and implemented by the International Fertiliser Development Center (IFDC) and the African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP).
Addressing a post-forum press briefing, the Chief of Party, USAID/WAFP, Kofi Debrah, noted that about 30 per cent of the recent global increases in cereal production had been accounted for by fertilisers and that the need to enhance fertiliser use had been highlighted since the Abuja Summit in 2006.
He added that fertiliser consumption levels in West Africa were generally below 10 kilogrammes per hectare, compared to a world average of 107 kilogrammes per hectare, and far below the target of 50 kilogrammes per hectare set by African governments to be met by 2015.
The Regional Mission Director of USAID/West Africa, Alexander Deprez, in his address during the closing ceremony, said, “Tackling problems as a region rather than as a collection of individual countries is the mindset that will make a difference in solving fertiliser problems and food security.”
He explained that the same problems that plagued intra-regional trade in commodities and seed applied to the fertiliser value chain and expressed confidence in suggestions from the forum on the need to build national and regional capacity for quality control, laboratory testing and inspection services among other steps towards implementing the regional regulation.
He urged country representatives to play their roles in the implementation of the ECOWAS Regional Fertiliser Regulation to step up and make harmonisation a reality.
The acting Director of Agriculture of the ECOWAS Commission for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alain Sy Traore, said the passage of the ECOWAS Fertiliser Regulation paved the way for a favourable policy and regulatory environment for investments that improved the supply and use of fertilisers in the region.
The forum, held on the theme, "Ensuring a Favourable Policy & Regulatory Environment for Fertiliser Trade & Use in West Africa", brought together West Africa's fertiliser stakeholders, including public officials, policy makers/implementers, international manufacturers and traders, importers, blenders, distributors, bankers and farmer-based organisations, to discuss practical approaches for achieving increased availability and use of fertiliser in West Africa.
