The WaterBlog

Responding to the Fertilizer Crisis

by Getachew Engdayehu, Frank van Steenbergen and Girma Senbeta The Ethiopian synthetic fertilizer system has been under much pressure with demand rising fast. It has been subject to several criticisms.  Though there has been much investment in soil mapping in Ethiopia, the fertilizer distribution is poorly targeted, according to the ‘Assessment of Fertilizer Distribution Systems and Opportunities for Developing Fertilizer Blends Ethiopia’ brought out by  the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) commissioned by AGRA. Based on country-wide soil mapping seven fertilizer formulations were prepared, meant to cover most soil situations. However, according to the study above these formulations were not validated and did not take into account the different cropping systems in different parts of the country.  Most noticeably, some key micro-nutrients may be missing from the formulations. Another bottleneck is that the  capacity of the blending plants in Ethiopia  is below the demand for fertilizer blends. In addition, fertilizer delivery also… Continued