In Wolof it’s called “dior”. The term refers to this very sandy and arid land, which is discovered specifically in the Niayes region, which is one of the agricultural basins of Senegal. In this coastal domain that stretches from Dakar to Saint-Louis, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean through a row of dunes, the climate is conducive to agriculture, water is available, but the soils are very infertile.
“Without fertilisers, you can’t grow anything here,” says Amar Sall, 66, sheltered from the sun under a large, classic pointed hat braided with straw and leather. Given the very poor nature of this soil, the plant does not meet its needs, so fertilizers are decisive. He spreads about 450 pounds of those tiny balls containing nutrient cycles (two or three cycles a year) to produce onions, potatoes, carrots and other cabbages on a plot of about five hectares, located behind the pueblo. de Diogo.
Day to day, this Niayes hamlet lives to the rhythm of market gardening and fishing – but also departures in canoes, sometimes turning into drama, of young people who want to reach Europe. On this Friday at midday, Diogo is preparing for the market which will take place after the big weekly prayer: trucks full of diakhatou (also called “African eggplant”) or watermelons clutter the main street, women begin to prepare their Fertilizer stalls and shops, with shop fronts painted with promising colorful vegetables, have opened their doors.
Adama Beye’s store is filled with giant 50-kilogram sacks whose value has reached record levels in recent years. “The purse went up to 40,000, 45,000 CFA francs [between 60 and 70 euros], it’s very difficult to get supplies,” the 37-year-old manager said in Wolov, covering the sizzle with a television that broke the atmosphere. This year it’s down considerably, but it’s still too expensive, too expensive. It’s still 20,000 CFA francs. Before 2020, the two maximum commodities fed here were worth about 12,000 CFA francs: urea, a traditional nitrogen fertilizer. and NPK, an aggregate of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Faced with this inflation, explains Mr. Sall, farmers are buying fewer bags, limiting these inputs whose use is already very low in Senegal – on average 9 kilos per hectare of arable land, compared to 153 in France and 375 in China, according to the World Bank. “When we reduce, it is immediately felt in the yields,” adds the market gardener. With a double consequence for the farmers: a harvest that does not cover the needs of the family and no additional income to buy other food.
How can we alleviate this scarcity and maximize value?Senegal has been hit hard by the global situation, as have its African neighbours, who import their fertilisers on a large scale. The explosion of value began with the Covid-19 crisis, which disrupted supply chains, and then intensified with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Beyond the increase in energy costs (of which fertilizers are greedy) that the war has caused, it turns out that Russia is one of the world’s leading fertilizer producers. currencies, increasing the cost of imports for Africans.
Fertiliser costs doubled in Nigeria, tripled in Ethiopia and nearly quadrupled in Zimbabwe between early 2022 and early 2023, according to a study by the NGO ActionAid. When asked about their recent global developments, John Baffes, senior agricultural economist at the World Bank, notes that they are now back to pre-Covid-19 levels. But costs in some markets remain high. Among the explanations is the fact that [locally] available fertilizers were purchased at high costs or due to the depreciation of local currencies,” he wrote in an email.
In Senegal, the state has long tried to regulate diversification through large subsidies. This year, 40 billion CFA francs, or 40% of the public package for agriculture, has been loyal to fertilizer subsidies. In theory, manufacturers only pay about 50% of a bag of urea or NPK. But this formula is undermined by mismanagement and embezzlement, reducing its impact, many in the industry agree.
To protect itself from crises, the sector is particularly interested in seeing the progression of local production. “When we say NPK in Senegal, we import N, nitrogen, and K, potassium. It’s all imported phosphate,” says Moulaye. Kandé, president of the Senegalese Association of Fertiliser Professionals. Because the country is a producer. In the same region of Niayes, the Chemical Industries of Senegal (ICS) group, belonging to the Asian giant Indorama, operates a giant mine where the component of the processed product, phosphorus, is used locally to manufacture NPK for the local market: the rest is exported.
Mr. Kandé himself owns a small NPK fertilizer production unit, for which he sources phosphate partly from ICS, “but at international market prices. Even if the phosphate is Senegalese, it is quoted on a daily basis! », he laments, emphasizing that there are no subsidies for fertilizer producers and that his unit does not operate continuously due to lack of profitability.
Faced with the limitations of a highly globalized market, the State of Senegal, despite everything, is devising a completely different strategy: improving access to biological fertilizers, which it has begun to subsidize, also at the rate of 50%. In Diogo, the president of the Coopadin agricultural cooperative, Ngagne Diop, is enthusiastic: he has even benefited from a reconversion order on his own field. “The land is being degraded by fertilizers, so we are moving towards farmers towards organic agriculture,” he says, sitting in his tiny office, where cloth bags take up part of the space. But organic farming faces similar challenges: prices (only a few thousand tons subsidized, compared to 180,000 tons for chemical fertilizers), low local production, education of producers, etc.
Before leaving for Friday prayer, however, Ngagne Diop raises one last idea, forgotten in the race for yields: “Post-harvest losses are also money!» Whether it’s those tomatoes, onions or potatoes that rot in the field or in the markets due to lack of storage. All sectors combined, Senegal accounts for between 13% and 70% of production, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.