Kenyan President William Ruto has called on African leaders to adopt strategies to make fertilizer affordable and accessible to farmers.

Mr Ruto, who opened the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, emphasized on the need for cooperation among African countries to boost the continent’s capacity to produce fertilizer using locally available raw materials.

“Our focus should not only be on increasing fertilizer usage but also on ensuring its judicious application to revitalise responsive soils and rehabilitate degraded ones,” Mr Ruto said.

More than 2,000 delegates, including ministers, researchers, donors, and six African presidents, will attend the three-day summit.

Co-hosted by the African Union, the Kenyan government, and multilateral partners, the summit, with the  theme “Listen to the Land,” is expected to chart a new path for regenerating the continent’s soils and other vital ecosystems.

The Kenyan president said that extreme climate adversities, such as floods, severe droughts, and extensive land degradation hampers farmers’ efforts and investments in increasing agricultural productivity.

He noted that the large-scale use of subsidised fertilizer is imperative to achieve Africa’s green revolution.

Mr Ruto called for prioritising investments in nitrogen fertilizer production facilities, developing real-time mechanisms to track fertilizer market trends to ensure timely availability, and developing sustainable strategies to make fertilizer more affordable and accessible. 

(Xinhua/NAN)