FERTILIZER IN AFRICA

A dear friend of mine is in Africa at the moment doing some field research for a foundation for a couple of weeks. I thought her project was really interesting, so I thought I would share some of her challenges.

Her project is a study on how to increase adoption of fertilizer in Africa. In theory, having farmers use fertilizer or better seeds will have tremendous benefit to the rural economy. It’s the perfect success story: use fertilizer or better seeds, increase your crop’s yield, sell or export it, and increase the wealth of the local economy. Wealth, of course has a direct link to addressing some of the fundamental issues underdeveloped societies face. It all sounded so interesting until she expressed her frustration with the project: even if they found a way to get every farmer to optimize the use of fertilizer for their crops, the project would go nowhere. Nobody would ever see the benefits, and it might actually turn out worse. What? You’re probably scratching your head wondering what could possibly be wrong with this picture. In a word: infrastructure.

The reason her project would never (at least in the short to medium term) work is because farmers do not have the infrastructure in place to transport the produce to areas where they could export them. The local economies already grow enough to support surrounding areas. The use of fertilizer adds approximately 20% to the cost of food, and because food is such a perishable item, there is a high % of wastage associated with transporting it over long distances. The use of genetically altered seeds is just as bad. In many cases, the seeds are more resilient to pests, or even yield crops that are nutritionally superior (such as rice that’s infused with beta carotene). The issue here is that the companies who design the seeds made them sterile, so every year, and every season, the farmer has to purchase new seeds, and is reliant on the large agricultural companies for that. That’s another story though… Even if Farmers are lucky enough to get the produce ready for export, trade tariffs are too high, rending their produce prices uncompetitive in the open marketplace. The deck is stacked against them before they even get started! The infrastructure issue is one that Africa has faced for a very long time, and it is one that only Coca Cola has been able to succeed at.

On a side note, It’s interesting how, walking around in Manila, you can find bananas or other produce that looks so different then what you find in the store. They aren’t shiny, and perfectly shaped, and yellow. They’re green! They come in all sorts of shapes, but taste equally good. They even have markets with restaurants alongside them. You sit down, order the type of fish you want (they even do this with vegetables), and the server literally walks to the market, buys the fish as fresh as it comes, and cooks it for you. I thought this was pretty neat.