IFDC unveils new fertiliser to add 2.2MT yield per hectare

THE International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC) through the Feed the Future, a programme of the USAID have unveiled a new variety of fertilizer that is capable of increasing crop yield by 2.2 metric tons per hectare.

This new fertilizer unlike the conventional fertilizers in Nigeria, has additional nutrients including Sulphur and zinc to added to nitrogen, phosphate a. Doc potassium which is contained in the ones farmers use now.

This was disclosed by the Chief of Party for the Feed the Future Nigeria Agro Inputs Project, IFDC, Dr Kofi Debrah at the Feed the Future Nigeria Implementing Partner’s Policy Dialogue Series, with the theme “Bringing Balanced Fertilizers to the Nigerian Market: Policy and Investment Implications of Soil and Crop-Specific Fertilizer Blend-based Technologies.

According to him “we have been doing a lot of work with the Ministry of Agriculture, particularly the National Programme for Food Security (NPFS) in the areas of soil testing and using the right kinds of fertilizer.

“As you you know, Nigerians use fertilizers based on only three nutrients which includes, Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium, but that is not good enough because plants need more than these nutrients.

“So, we have worked with NPFS, we did soil analysis we found out what the soil needs in order to grow the plants very well, so we have added Sulphur and zinc which are secondary a day macro-nutrients to the fertilizers that is usually available and we used this new blended fertilizer, we tested them all over the northern Nigeria in the dry and wet season.

“We have very good result, the technology is that if you use it, the urea replacement technology, you are likely to have extra 2.2 metric tons per hectare in addition.”

Debrah however said: “So we came here to have a workshop bringing together the public sector, the policy makers, the farmers, researchers, so they will be aware of what we are doing, then we set to action so they will be able to use the quality seeds, the blended fertilizers and management practices in order to have increased yield.

“There have been a lot of interventions in the Nigerian agriculture but the yield has been very low, perhaps because the farmers are not doing the right thing and so with this kind of information, we are trying to see if by any way, we make the farmers have access to the inputs and use them correctly, then if it is adopted in the wide scale, we are likely to have massive production of rice just by using the right type of fertilizer”.

On the impact of this new technology to the Nigerian economy, he noted “in our estimate, we are looking at saving about $6 million in import substitution if indeed farmers use the technology 5 per cent of the total rice area in Nigeria and that five per cent will be about 150,000 hectares, if the technology is applied there, we are likely to have this import savings.

In his remarks, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh said “recognizing the need to support the realization of the genetic potential of our increasingly high-yielding crop varieties being adopted by our numerous farmers with appropriate fertilizer, we have commenced the promotion of soil – specific fertilizer formulations in collaboration with IFDC, Feed the Future and Agtho Fertilizer company to be used on the basis of the data available from our national soil fertility maps”.