President Hakainde Hichilema has stressed the need to make fertiliser available and affordable to farmers across the African region.

President Hichilema says if fertiliser is not made available and affordable to farmers, the intended objective of increasing productivity and securing food security on the continent will not be achieved.

He added that if fertiliser is not affordable, it means when the food is produced, it will be expensive, a situation which needs to be taken into account.

ZANIS reports that the Head of State said this today in Nairobi, Kenya during his address at the official opening of the Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit organised by the African Union.

“Fertilizer has to be available but it has to be affordable as well. There is no point making fertilizer available if it is not affordable to our farmers because we will not achieve the intended objective, increase productivity as well as to secure food for the most vulnerable,” the President said.

Mr Hichilema noted that fertiliser has in the past been applied in less quantities due to the lack of adequate soil testing and research.

“It is true from the past that we have been applying fertiliser in lesser quantities, yes, but also inappropriate fertiliser because we have not done enough soil testing, we have not done enough research on the varieties that need to be treated differently, so I do believe that the outcome of this summit will address those issues as well,” he pointed out.

And the President further advised African countries not to depend on others to supply fertiliser to them but invest to increase production capacity.

“We shouldn’t depend on others to supply us fertiliser as a continent therefore, we need to invest to increase the capacity to produce fertiliser on our continent. 

“Yes using our own materials as much as possible those that are available, the continent has these raw materials which must be exploited effectively but we need to invest in order to exploit these resources and we have been singing this song that when we invest, we must ensure that we mobilise capital which is fairly priced,” he said.

President Hichilema further said the issue of fair and correct price of capital remains valid in the production of fertiliser.

“As we talk about investment in fertiliser, we must talk about trading with each other, there is no point that we work together to increase capacity to produce fertiliser, but a number of us on the continent are still placing orders to purchase fertiliser from other parts of the world it means we have failed to support the investments that we have made for them to be viable,” the President said.

The Head of state further revealed that Zambia has started investing and supporting local production of fertiliser and that the country has now been able to move from basil dressing to top dressing.

“In Zambia, we have started practicing that on fertiliser and other aspects. Two and a half years since we took office, we have been able to move from almost a zero situation or minimum situation of producing fertiliser especially the basil dressing to self-sufficiency and move to self-sufficiency of the top dressing,” he said.

President Hichilema also called for the need to introspect on the Abuja declaration so that issues that were raised could start being addressed.

“The Abuja declaration was a long time ago, why haven’t we made progress, we need to introspect and begin to address those issues that have not allowed us to make progress,” he noted.

And Kenyan President, William Ruto emphasized the need to address challenges that are affecting agriculture production in Africa.

Dr. Ruto noted that Africa remains heavily reliant on agriculture and that people face serious challenges which need to be addressed.

“People face numerous serious challenges in agriculture, inadequate agriculture, droughts, floods, extensive land degradation which centres on poor soil health,” he noted.

Dr. Ruto stated that the summit was important as it was also addressing fertiliser production using locally available materials which will help bring out Africa’s potential to transform into a global food basket through agriculture.

And African Union Chairperson, Moussa Faki said the organisation is committed to support soil health in African countries, a reason why it came up with a soil action plan.

Mr Faki advised African countries to renew their political will and harness resources in addressing soil health and use fertiliser in a strategic manner to realize enhanced agriculture production.