An African Union Commission (AUC) envoy has raised alarm over the continent\u2019s low fertiliser use, warning that it is worsening food insecurity and driving up food import costs.<\/p>\n
Speaking during a two-day visit to Zimbabwe, AUC envoy Vilakati Malidane met with agricultural officials to discuss progress on the Commission\u2019s planned fertiliser plant in Harare. The project forms part of the AU\u2019s broader efforts to boost local production and reduce dependence on costly imports.<\/p>\n
According to the AUC, only 10 African countries currently apply fertiliser at the recommended rate of 50 kilograms per hectare. This shortfall has significantly undermined agricultural productivity, contributing to the continent\u2019s growing food import bill, estimated at about $100 billion annually.<\/p>\n
Malidane said improving fertiliser access and affordability would be key to achieving the AU\u2019s food security and agricultural transformation goals under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme.<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An African Union Commission (AUC) envoy has raised alarm over the continent\u2019s low fertiliser use, warning that it is worsening food insecurity and driving up food import costs. Speaking during a two-day visit to Zimbabwe, AUC envoy Vilakati Malidane met with agricultural officials to discuss progress on the Commission\u2019s planned fertiliser plant in Harare. The… Continue reading AU envoy warns low fertiliser use deepening Africa\u2019s food insecurity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":8481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[86,87,89,88],"class_list":["post-8480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","tag-africa","tag-food-security","tag-zambia","tag-zimbabwe","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16581,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480\/revisions\/16581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}