The African Development Bank has approved a project that will provide 60,000 tonnes of fertilizer to 400,000 smallholder farmers in Uganda.
Under the bank’s Feed Africa Strategy, the project will channel funds to selected banks with the purpose of increasing food productivity and security, the AfDB announced in a press statement.
The project builds on the results of the Sustain Africa Initiative, and the bank’s Country Strategy Paper for Uganda 2023-2026. It also taps into its technologies for African Agricultural Transformation Programme, which was approved on September 22, 2023.
The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism will provide $2 million in partial trade credit guarantees and a grant of $877,842 to the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership.
The project will run for three years. The programme is meant to link the wholesalers of fertilizers with the dealers and the farmers. The bank expects the credit facility to reduce the risks associated with suppliers giving fertilisers to wholesalers on credit.
The project is also expected to boost yields of farmers as they adapt to using improved seeds, balancing crop nutrition and best farming practices.
“In Uganda, the consumption [of fertilisers] is about 2.5 kg/ha. The project will help to make fertilizer more accessible and appropriately used by farmers, which would in turn boost agricultural productivity and help to improve food security in Uganda,” Marie Claire Kalihangabo, the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism coordinator, said in a statement.
In 2006, African leaders tasked the Africa Fertilizer Mechanism to assist African Union member states in increasing agricultural productivity. The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism was formally created in 2008 and became operational in 2015
Source: The Observer
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