Fertiliser challenge needs solution

AFRICA needs to solve the challenge of poor fertiliser systems to participate effectively in the US$120 billion global fertiliser market to boost crop productivity, MicrobeBio Africa chief executive officer Argent Chuulu has said.
It is believed that, of the $120 billion fertiliser market, the African continent contributes about $1 billion with most of the countries importing the agriculture input.
Dr Chuulu said poor seed, fertiliser and farm management systems were the major issues causing poor productivity in most countries hence for more efforts to find better solutions.
“The global fertiliser market accounts for $120 billion but Africa’s share is only about one per cent as it imports most of the commodity,” he said.
Dr Chuulu said MicrobeBio, the United States of America founded microbebio fertiliser manufacturing conglomerate is ready to help Africa and Zambia in particular to find cheaper and environmentally friendly fertilisers that allow farmers maximize production.
He said the use of microbe bio fertilisers which was recently certified by the country’s agriculture think tank, the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) would revolutionalise the agriculture sector in the country.
“ZARI certified microbe fertiliser, this was created in the United States by 46 universities to come up with a package weighing five litres to cover an hectare,” Dr Chuulu said.
He said with most soils being over used in the country, microbe fertiliser was better placed to resolve output issues.
Dr Chuulu said, Zambia like any other African countries was grappling with high cost of fertiliser ranging between $220 to $800 per hectare due high cost of transportation.
But that Microbe Global would solve some of the challenges as the fertilisers and pests would be costing almost the same as in USA.
He said productivity would be futile if fertiliser issues were not iron-out adding that the country exports about 120,000 tonnes of treated seeds but imports almost of its 500,000 tonnes of fertiliser needs.
“We are looking at starting producing microbe fertilisers here in Zambia. There is need to strike a balance, the country is self sufficient in seeds but imports a lot of fertilisers,” Dr Chuulu said.