From fertiliser-centric to holistic soil health investment – Africa’s policy shift and pathways to agroecological transformation

By Alex O. Awiti

Africa’s quest for food and nutrition security has reached a critical policy inflection point. The 2024 Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit, culminating in the Nairobi Declaration on Fertilizer and Soil Health, marks a decisive pivot away from the narrow, input-driven strategies of the past (e.g. the 2006 Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution) towards a holistic, soil health-centred paradigm. This shift reflects a hard-learned lesson: decades of prioritising the sole application of mineral fertilisers through national subsidy programmes have failed to reverse soil degradation or sustainably boost productivity. With over 65 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s soils now biologically depleted, the continent faces a stark choice: double down on outdated models or embrace agroecological principles and regenerative practices that reconcile productivity with socio-ecological resilience and equity.

The limits of fertiliser-centric approaches

African leaders embraced this policy shift after recognising that decades of soil nutrient mining, inappropriate input use, and declining land productivity have rendered over 65 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s soils biologically dead and chemically depleted. The widespread adoption of input subsidy programmes in countries such as Ethiopia, Malawi, Kenya, and Nigeria – although intended to scale productivity rapidly – has not yielded the transformational outcomes envisioned or stable crop yields. Fertiliser adoption remains low, and crop yield trends have stagnated or even declined in many countries. Recent studies have shown that while fertiliser subsidies can quickly increase households' grain yield and production levels, at least in the short term, their overall production and welfare effects tend to be smaller than expected (Jayne et al., 2018).

The emphasis of national-scale input subsidy programmes on inorganic fertilisers alone diverges sharply from both the scientific principles of soil recapitalisation and the vision of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for a uniquely African Green Revolution. Research has long shown that inorganic fertilisers alone cannot restore degraded soils. Their effectiveness is significantly limited in nutrient-poor, organic matter-depleted soils, which are common across the continent. Burke et al. (2019) and Marenya and Barrett (2009) have argued that for many farmers in Africa, incentives, institutions and markets alone are insufficient to drive fertiliser adoption and use without complementary improvements in soil health conditions, which influence conditional demand. Studies by Vanlauwe et al. (2011) and Giller (2020) demonstrate that combining mineral fertilisers with organic matter through integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) offers higher agronomic efficiency, improved nutrient cycling, and sustained productivity. This scientific foundation, first laid out by Sanchez et al. (1997), has now found political expression in the Nairobi Declaration.

An audacious policy paradigm shift

In a remarkable, audacious paradigm shift, African Heads of State acknowledge that the perspective on agricultural sustainability has evolved from a narrow crop productivity and profitability focus to a holistic systems approach that encompasses social, environmental and economic sustainability, climate change adaptation and mitigation, rehabilitation of degraded land, and restoration and maintenance of ecosystem services, including biodiversity. Where the Abuja Declaration emphasised increased fertiliser use (targeting 50 kg/ha by 2015), the Nairobi Declaration offers a systems-based framework that aligns productivity goals with environmental and social sustainability outcomes. It acknowledges the role of agroforestry, legume intercropping, conservation agriculture, watershed management and organic fertilisers as essential elements of resilient food systems. Most notably, the Declaration sets an ambitious goal: restore soil health on at least 30 per cent of degraded land by 2034, backed by actions such as tripling domestic production of organic fertiliser and repurposing existing subsidies to support smallholder soil health investments.

Translating commitments into practice through national-level pathways

But translating this bold vision into practice requires more than declarations. Africa’s policy history is replete with well-meaning frameworks that fell short of delivery. For example, neither the Abuja Declaration nor the Malabo Declaration, with which African leaders committed to seven specific goals in 2014 to achieve accelerated agricultural growth and transformation, were ever fully realised due to a lack of political commitment, weak national alignment, underfunding, and limited national and institutional accountability. The question now is whether Nairobi will be different.

For the Nairobi Declaration to succeed, countries must move swiftly to translate continental commitments into national action. This includes defining clear soil health targets and restoration priorities at farm and landscape levels, collaboratively co-designing agroecological and regenerative practices with farmers tailored to local conditions and informed by Indigenous knowledge, scaling the production and access to organic and biological inputs, supported by research, market development, and youth-led entrepreneurship in the bioeconomy, and integrating soil health principles into national policies and investment plans, including agricultural extension, land use, water management and climate adaptation strategies.

Financing transition through an innovative financing mechanism

As key documents, the Soil Initiative for Africa (SIA) and the endorsed Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan provide a continental framework to support this transition. However, implementation will require robust coordination between national governments, regional economic communities and development partners. It also demands rethinking financing: mobilising new public-private partnerships, de-risking soil health investments and leveraging global climate funds (e.g. the Global Climate Fund, the Global Environment Facility, the Climate Investment Fund, Nature Performance Bonds, in addition to the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism) to support agroecological, regenerative and other nature-based transitions.

Accountability as the bedrock of fertile futures

Perhaps the most profound aspect of the Nairobi Declaration is its departure from the false dichotomy between agroecological and conventional, or external input-intensive, agriculture. The Declaration reflects a science-based, pragmatic path forward by promoting an integrated approach – where organic resources enhance the efficiency and sustainability of mineral inputs. It affirms that soil health is not a niche environmental issue but rather the cornerstone of food security, climate resilience, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and rural livelihoods.

Hence, the Nairobi Declaration is more than a policy reset; it represents an audacious and far-sighted paradigm shift. It acknowledges that Africa’s agricultural transformation will not come from mineral fertilisers but from regenerating the biological and ecological foundation of farming systems – the soil. It also recognises that this transformation must be equitable, inclusive, locally grounded, supported by robust public institutions and sustained private and public investment. The success of the Nairobi Declaration will hinge on the continent’s ability to learn from past implementation failures, build institutional capacity, and ensure transparent and accountable follow-through.

Alex O. Awiti is a trans-disciplinary scholar and Principal Scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya. Alex leads the Agroecology Theme at CIFOR-ICRAF.

References:

Burke, W.J., Snap, S.S., Peter, B.G., Jayne T.S. 2022. Sustainable intensification in jeopardy: Transdisciplinary evidence from Malawi, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 837. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155758.

Giller, KE. 2020. The food security conundrum of sub-Saharan Africa. Global Food Security. Vol 26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100431.

Jayne, et.al. 2018. Review: Taking stock of Africa’s second-generation agricultural input subsidy programs, Food Policy, Volume 75: (1-14), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2018.01.003.

Marenya, P. P., & Barrett, C. B. 2009. Soil quality and fertiliser use rates among smallholder farmers in western Kenya. Agricultural Economics, 40(5), 561-572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2009.00398.x

Sanchez, PA., Shepherd, KD., Soule, MJ., Place, FM., Buresh, RJ., Izac, A.-MN., et al.(1997. “Soil Fertility Replenishment in Africa: An Investment in Natural Resource Capital,” in Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa, eds. R. J. Buresh, P. A. Sanchez, and F. Calhoun (Madison, WI, USA: Soil Science Society of America American Society of Agronomy) 1–46. doi: 10.2136/sssaspecpub51.c1.

Link to Nairobi Declaration

Link to Abuja Declaration