Comment: Fertiliser – a missed opportunity

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Comment: Fertiliser – a missed opportunity

12:05 CAT | 13 Dec 2017

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An opportunity to create a domestic fertiliser industry to promote agriculture has been lost because Mozambique does not have a coordinated development strategy. Mozambique’s agricultural production is so low because farmers use so little fertiliser because it is too expensive. Two of the three main ingredients of fertilizer exist in Mozambique, but there is no policy to put them together.

Fertiliser provides three main nutrients – nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). Nitrogen increases yield and. P and K improve crop quality. Mozambique has phosphate rock which can be used to produce P and natural gas to produce N. Last week it was admitted that no company was willing to develop the phosphate rock in Monapo, Nampula. (Noticias, Zitamar 7 Dec). Earlier this year, Yara won the contract to produce nitrogen fertiliser from natural gas in Cabo Delgado, mostly for export. Even though it was discussed two years ago (http://bit.ly/MozGasEn), no one thought to put farmers, N and P together in one package.

Yara is one of the largest fertiliser companies in the world and said informally that, if asked, it would have been willing to create a domestic fertiliser production and distribution company. In its tender for domestic gas use, the government could – and should – have given priority to a fertiliser company that would use local phosphate and would distribute fertiliser at local level at a reduced price. Yara is not a charity, and would have demanded to pay a bit less for the gas – a small price to create a domestic fertiliser industry and promotion of Mozambican farmers.

A lack of joined up thinking means Mozambique lost a chance to create a domestic industry and support farmers.

By Joseph Hanlon

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Source: News reports & clippings