Expectations that the 3 million-metric-ton Dangote Fertilizer plant will come on stream next year is giving hope to farmers across Nigeria, who over the years have struggled with expensive and inadequate supply of fertilisers which at times also came at inferior quality. A comment this week, attributed to a top executive at a firm involved in constructing the Dangote Fertilizer plant, has suggested it will be ready for operation in 2021.

“The 2021 start date for Dangote Fertilizer is what I would refer to as light at the end of the tunnel. Though still a few months away, it is bound to alleviate the pains of farmers,” said Folake Aina, managing director, VD&S Farmers’ Centre, which retails agricultural inputs and offers advisory services to farmers in Epe area of Lagos.

In 2018, the West African Fertilizer Association put fertiliser consumption in Nigeria at 1.4m metric tons, whereas the country has an estimated demand of 6m metric tons, according to a presentation by Gideon Negedu, executive secretary, Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN). Farm productivity in Nigeria has ranked among the lowest in the world, with output for different crops from maize to tomato, rice, cassava (and any crop one could mention) falling below world averages. While output is not entirely due to fertiliser, its usage or non-usage contributes significantly to output.

In June 2006, part of the resolutions adopted by the African Union Special Summit of the Heads of State and Government in the famed ‘Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution’ sought to increase fertilizer usage across the continent from 8kg to 50kg of nutrients per hectare by 2015. It is currently estimated that Nigeria only uses about 23kg (less than 50% of the target).

Dangote coming on stream with 3m metric tons per annum Urea will cover about half the country’s fertilizer needs, putting the direly-needed input within reach of more farmers, and helping to take the country closer to food security. The facility, located in Ibeju Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, is the largest fertilizer plant in West Africa, according to the company.

“The emergence of Dangote Fertilizer will impact supply greatly and farmers will be able to access fertilizers more readily and probably at more affordable prices,” said Kabiru Ibrahim, national president, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), in a Whatsapp chat. According to Ibrahim, going by the company’s antecedents in cement, it is expected to make fertiliser available to smallholder farmers readily and at an affordable price. “Nigerian farmers look forward to fertiliser becoming available like Coca-Cola,” he enthused.

Phase 1 one of the Dangote Fertilizer project which is estimated to cost $2.5bn is to manufacture 3m metric tons per annum of Urea. The capacity will later be expanded to produce multi grades of fertilizers to meet soil, crop and climate-specific requirement for the African continent, according to a project fact sheet shared with BusinessDay.

Africanfarmer Mogaji, chairman, Agric & Agro-Allied Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), reckons the Dangote Fertilizer plant will be a game changer in the agric space when it takes off. “We can get quality because that is the biggest challenge in the sector,” Mogaji told BusinessDay. “Most of the fertilizers we have contain a lot of fillers used to beef up the product (in a misleading way). Most times when you have the NPK 15-15-15, it is mostly like 7-7-7 or 10-10-10, so farmers have to use double to get the required results.”

This negates efforts of farmers who use single applications, where, for instance, a farmer who should uses 10 bags of the substandard fertilizers per hectare should in fact be using 20 bags. “For a long time, farmers have been agitated over lack of fertilizers for their planting. This scarcity led to astronomical increase in prices of the little available quantity, making business tougher and less profitable for farmers,” said Aina of VD&S Farmers’ Centre.

Like other farmers, input suppliers and stakeholders in the sector, she expressed optimism that the Dangote facility would lead to a surge in agricultural output in the country, and with this, likelihood of reduced cost of food items for individuals and manufacturers who use agricultural inputs.

SOURCE (abridged): https://businessday.ng/lead-story/article/farmers-anticipate-productivity-boom-on-dangote-fertilisers-2021-completion-plan/