На форуме в Кигали заявили, что здоровье почвы станет ключом к снижению импорта продовольствия в Африке

As concerns over food security grow across Africa, soil health is emerging as a critical factor that could force farmers to rethink not just application rates but the type of fertiliser best suited to their soils. The details emerged at the Kigali Africa Food Systems Forum this week where farmers, experts and policy makers gathered to pore over cutting down the continent’s mammoth $50 billion annual food import bill. Soil health, they argued, was part of the holistic approach meant to improve food production and hence nutrition and create sustainable energy systems. At the opening ceremony of the 20th AFS held in Kigali, Rwanda, on Wednesday, the leaders said that talks alone do not change anything for an African farmer or a consumer of produce from the farms, but intentional implementation of policies goes a long way.“For Africans to fully benefit from their land and other natural resources, they must put into action the commitments made at different meetings, including those on agriculture and food security,” Kagame said, asking the audience to consider agriculture as a business if it were to be taken seriously. This year, the forum brought together over 5,000 people from about 50 countries in Africa, most of them youth engaged in agribusiness. Rwanda itself was praised for its improving use of fertiliser in crop farming with experts saying the region should emulate Rwanda’s way. Yet across the continent, retooling farming is becoming a daily headache. Alexandre Macedo, Senior Vice President for the Business Unit Africa, at fertiliser maker, Yara International said Africa’s food security must be anchored in its soil health.“If we are serious about enabling farmers to produce more, earn more and build resilience for generations to come, we should move beyond asking how much fertiliser we use and focus on how intelligently we use every nutrient,” he told a panel session. Things like balanced crop nutrition, informed by soil conditions and combined with good agricultural practices, can help restore soil fertility, improve productivity and make farming more profitable and resilient, he argued.“The private sector thus needs to move beyond providing quality fertiliser, to bringing science, innovation, practical agronomic knowledge and solutions closer to farmers. Firms engaged in farm input production like Yara, he said, are now increasingly challenged with farmer prosperity and environmental sustainability which he argued are not separable if either party is to survive.“Africa can feed its growing population, but this will require collective action and investment across the food system.”Much of the problem for African soils is that countries don’t have sufficient data on what lacks in there. In Kenya, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation only recently started undertaking a nationwide soil sampling exercise aimed at establishing the health and characteristics of Kenyan soils. The initiative, announced last year, involves collecting about 77,000 soil samples across all the 47 counties. The exercise is funded by the World Bank and will provide information needed to guide farmers on appropriate fertiliser and crops. KALRO says the samples will be used to develop a digitised soil management information system. The system will help determine the type of fertiliser farmers should use and the crops that are most suitable for particular soils. The move seeks to customize fertiliser based on crops needs. Soil health, experts argued, is not just about fertiliser, however. It is also about knowing when to water the soil, when to drain it or when to leave it exposed to the sun for a while. These elements, in excess might be ruinous, but if applied in the right portions, they can pep up productivity.Øystein Botillen, the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Yara International, said Africa needs data on its soils, which he said is a big economic asset.“At the moment, a lot of the soil information remains largely within the domain of soil scientists. Some of it gets translated into fertiliser recommendations, but there is an opportunity to go further,” he said during a session on investing in healthier soils and building resilient food systems through involvement of the private sector actors in soil health and fertiliser supply chain.“The idea is to use digital technologies and AI to combine soil data, Farm-level information, Weather and climate information, Crop information, Farmer information, Market and business information. This could enable more targeted investment decisions,” said Øystein. According to Dr Mwendah M’Mailutha, President of the World Farmers’ Organisation, more farmers are familiar with the topic of soil health, but they can’t afford to check its contents.“This is something we’ve also been impressing the government on,” he told The EastAfrican on the sidelines of the forum. “Our soils, mostly in western Kenyan, are sick, because of a lot of them have used of chemical fertilisers over many many years.”“We should have regular soil testing so that a lot more farmers can have their soils tested so that they know what the soil is missing and what it needs for it to become better. We need to have a national programme where this is a service that is paid for by the public because these farmers produce food for the country.”Soil health, experts argued, is not just about fertiliser, however. It is also about knowing when to water the soil, when to drain it or when to leave it exposed to the sun for a while. These elements, in excess might be ruinous, but if applied in the right portions, they can pep up productivity.Øystein Botillen, the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Yara International, said Africa needs data on its soils, which he said is a big economic asset.“At the moment, a lot of the soil information remains largely within the domain of soil scientists. Some of it gets translated into fertiliser recommendations, but there is an opportunity to go further,” he said during a session on investing in healthier soils and building resilient food systems through involvement of the private sector actors in soil health and fertiliser supply chain.“The idea is to use digital technologies and AI to combine soil data, Farm-level information, Weather and climate information, Crop information, Farmer information, Market and business information. This could enable more targeted investment decisions,” said Øystein. Other experts said Africa’s agricultural potential is not held behind by ignorance. Moses Vilakati, African Union’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment (ARBE) said access to quality tools and input will fix most problems.“They need access to quality food, fertilisers, irrigation systems, mechanisation, digital technologies, markets, and extension services,” Vilakati said.“If we were serious about nourishing our nations, growing jobs, and reducing African dependence on food imports, substitutions must become a priority,” he said. One way of achieving that is to cut frequent boardroom discussions on food and implement decisions. African countries have been mostly blaming external factors such as foreign wars and other geopolitical tensions for their food woos. Amath Pathé Sene, the Managing Director of the Africa Food Systems Forum told delegates the next 20 years will be critical for Africa because food import bills will likely double or be halved if policy decisions are implemented.“The next chapter will be more than just bringing people to rooms; it will be about bringing together leadership, ideas, innovation, investment and partnerships to deliver measurable transformation,” said Pathé. Yet Africa must learn from its past to fix the future. Dr Namanga Ngogi, former president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) said that the vision for agriculture in Africa was formed by an urgency that was needed 20 years ago.“The gap between consumption and production was high, it still is. Africa’s smallholder farmers lacked access to inputs, such as fertilizers and seeds, but the vision was to give smallholder farmers access to inputs and markets,” he said.“We should take African farmers seriously as businesspeople. We lack mechanisms to transform the positive impact of farming for nutrition. We need to focus on nutrition,” he advised. What kind of food to be grown also became a factor. Africans may be hungriest lot, but they also probably need to fix diet. In some countries, even with plenty of food, malnutrition has been observed. Dr Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President, Food Initiative, Rockefeller Foundation said that Africa now has to chart its own future because the industrialised world is already seeing problems related to lifestyle diseases from bad eating habits.“You don’t want to copy what has been done in other places because they have been eating food that causes disease. Africa needs to take advantage of its incredible biodiversity and ensure that land degradation does not follow the patterns of other places,” he said. © Copyright 2026 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. ( Syndigate.info ).