Africa requires a comprehensive shift in fertilizer policy and instead focus on reduced dependency on fossil fuel-based nitrogen fertilizer, transitioning to agro ecological methods and improving soil health in the long term.
According to Harun Wurai, Programme Coordinator of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Africa must find pathways to provide a better life for its people, including access to healthy and sustainably produced food
Speaking in Nairobi, the expert pointed out that there is a need to align agriculture in Africa with soil health instead of focusing on the use of synthetic fertilizers.
According to the foundation, the initiatives can only be transitional solutions in order to phase out the use of fossil fertilizers and should not hold up the necessary transformation towards holistic solutions.
Wurai who authored the paper on soil health in Africa says African governments must move away even more clearly from the idea of primarily increasing the use of synthetic fertilizers.
The Heinrich Böll Foundation is a German, legally independent political foundation Nairobi programme seeks to advance progressive political and socio-economic transformation through its thematic focus on Sustainable Development, Gender Democracy, Dialogue and Civic Spaces, Agroecology and Food Rights
At the end of this week Germany and Kenya are expected to launch the Kenyan-German Hydrogen Diplomacy Office, the first of its kind in East Africa, recognizing the potential that green hydrogen offers to promote green industrialization and to strengthen, diversify and decarbonize the Kenyan economy.
By Wangari Ndirangu
