Africa Fertilizer Summit June 9-13, 2006

The Africa Fertilizer Summit took place June 9-13, 2006 in Abuja, Nigeria.

"About 500 delegates from African governments, farmers’ organizations, development partners and the fertilizer industry took part in the Africa Fertilizer Summit held in Abuja, Nigeria from 9 to 13 June 2006. The summit was organized by the African Union (AU), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and implemented by the International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC). Its purpose was to boost fertilizer use across the continent and trigger a Green Revolution in Africa.

"In the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for African Green Revolution, issued at the end of the summit, African leaders declared fertilizer, from both inorganic and organic sources, “a strategic commodity without borders” and resolved that “the African Union Member States will accelerate the timely access of farmers to fertilizers”. Twelve key measures to foster an African Green Revolution were adopted.

"The first of these was a resolution by the AU member states to increase the level of fertilizer use from the current average of 8 kilograms per hectare, to an average of at least 50 kilograms per hectare by 2015. As an immediate measure, the declaration recommended “the elimination of taxes and tariffs on fertilizer and on fertilizer raw materials”.

"The summit also agreed on an action plan to operationalize the declaration. The action plan has five main elements:

• development of agro-dealer networks across rural Africa
• establishment of national agricultural input credit guarantee facilities
• use of “smart” subsidies to ensure that poor smallholders have access to fertilizers
• creation of regional fertilizer procurement and distribution centres, removal of trade barriers and promotion of local fertilizer production
• establishment of an Africa Fertilizer Development Financing Mechanism by the African Development Bank."

Summit Sponsors

Summit sponsors included:

• The Rockefeller Foundation
• The Federal Republic of Nigeria
• The International Fund for Agricultural Development
• The UN Food and Agriculture Organization
• The World Bank
• The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development
• The U.S. Agency for International Development
• The International Fertilizer Association
• Agriterra
• Sasakawa Global 2000
• The Arab Fertilizer Association

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch articles

• Second Green Revolution
• Green Revolution
• Rockefeller Foundation

External Resources

• Global Leaders Launch Effort to Turn Around Africa’s Failing Agriculture, Summit Press Release, Rockefeller Foundation, March 30, 2006.