Fertilizers will play a critical role in bridging the food gap in Africa – IFDC

Date:02-14-2022

The International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) says to feed the African population fertilizer will play a critical role in bridging the food gap.

Dr Oumou Camara, the Regional Director North and West Africa for IFDC, said the Centre intended to focus on women and the youth to transform the Agricultural sector.

Dr Camara made this known during an open door week organised by the Centre as part of its 20th anniversary on the theme: “20 Years Developing Agriculture from the Group Up.”

The event showcased IFDC’s innovative plans for the year and their approach: who they are, what they do and how they do it.

The Open Door gathered like-minded institutions and professionals as a fruitful ground for collaboration to kick-start the new year.

She said at the Centre they were committed to providing innovative solutions to create a food-secured and environmentally sustainable world.

Dr Camara said the goal was to empower the youth and women to transform agriculture on the African continent.

She said since the Centre’s establishment, “we have worked to promote local economic development by increasing food and agricultural productivity through effective and environmentally sound crop nutrition technologies and agribusiness expertise using a bottom-up approach.”

The overall goal of IFDC interventions is to significantly boost the production of higher quality food by eliminating wastage and destruction of agricultural water, land, seeds and fertilizer,” the Regional Director added.

She said IFDC was on top of promoting climate-smart and resilient farming systems and technologies among smallholder farmers to reduce adverse environmental impacts associated with agriculture productivity.

Dr Camara said the Centre has also been working with the government and other partners to address some of the challenges in the fertilizer industry, to enable farmers and other stakeholders to overcome these and be more productive, using tools such as fertilizer dashboard and the Ghana Food Expansion Programme.

IFDC has implemented several projects in Ghana and currently is implementing four projects including the 2SCALE- Towards Sustainable Cluster in Agribusiness through Learning in Entrepreneurship, SAPEP- Smallholder Agricultural Productivity Improvement Programme in Sub-Saharan Africa, AFO-AfricaFertilizer.Org and FERARI- Fertilizer Research and Responsible Implementation.

Madam Marina Diboma, the Programmes Director of the 2SCALE Programme, said the programme established agribusiness clusters around business championships such as the entrepreneurial producer organisations or local SMEs that trade or process the produce of farmers.

He said the programme served as a transformational tool for smallholder farmers while they work in different value chains.