{"id":37846,"date":"2026-04-28T17:02:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T16:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/?p=37846"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T16:02:49","slug":"natural-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/natural-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural Farming the Key to African Food Production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The war on Iran has brought into sharp focus once more the arguments for a more affordable and sustainable approach to farming in Africa that\u2019s based on agroecological approaches to food production.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The impact of the closure of the Gulf of Hormuz on oil and gas supplies, and prices, is well document. The gulf blockade has also created a huge global shortage and triggered massive price hikes for urea and other nitrogen-rich fertilisers too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many farming systems rely heavily on fertilisers, but Africa is an exception, with very low fertilisier use per ha compared to the rest of the World in many African countries. This contributes to low productivity and declining soil health as nutrients are removed in the harvest and not replaced. Few Africa countries currently produce their own fertilisiers and have relied on imports from Russia, Belarus, the Gulf States and Morocco. Kenya for example, is almost totally reliant on imported fertilisers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Africa, millions of small-scale farmers can ill-afford these price increases. And African agriculture, which relies heavily on increasingly unpredictable rains, cannot afford uncertainty over access of fertilisers too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maize (corn), which is a major staple in sub-Saharan Africa \u2013 is at particular risk. Maize crops, which account for over 50% of total calorie intake in southern African countries including Malawi and Zambia, are more dependent on nitrogen fertiliser than other staples, such as sorghum, millet, cassava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Self Help Africa advocates for a sustainable approach to food production based on\u00a0Integrated Soil Fertility Management<\/strong>, minimising the use of external inputs by testing the soil before using fertilisers; adjusting the soil pH with lime; applying manure, compost, biochar and organic mulch, and rotating and intercropping with crops that fix nitrogen in the soil, such as soya bean, cowpeas, beans and groundnuts. The approach also reduces the leaching of soil nutrients in heavy rains, uses locally available fertiliser resources like rock phosphate, and employs the precision application of soil nutrients critical for both crop growth and child nutrition (micro dosing).\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n These approaches don’t only reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilisers farmers need to use, they can also significantly reduce input costs, increase profit margins and build soil carbon stocks, while restoring vital nutrients and minerals to their soils and diets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In many projects, Self Help Africa also promote alternatives to maize as the cabohydrate staple, including sorghum, millet, and cassava, because these crops do not rely as heavily on nitrogen fertilisers, and can also cope better with the droughts and other climate shocks that are becoming commonplace in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Self Help Africa aims to not only increase the efficiency of fertiliser use\u00a0 but also to “close the nutrient circle”, increase the recycling of nutrients to return the nutrients removed from the soil at harvest back to the soil and reduce the dependence on imported nutrients\u00a0that are subject to global price fluctuations and supply chain disruptions can only increase the resilience of millions of African small-holder farming families. Reducing reliance on purchased inputs will not only\u00a0lowers\u00a0costs, but will also increase farmer autonomy and reduce vulnerability to external shocks in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The war on Iran has brought into sharp focus once more the arguments for a more affordable and sustainable approach to farming in Africa that\u2019s based on agroecological approaches to food production.<\/p>\n Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":37847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[659,687,1196,637],"tags":[1289,704,1007,1290,1291,1283],"class_list":["post-37846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture-nutrition","category-climate-change","category-environment","category-news","tag-agroecology","tag-climate","tag-fertility","tag-gulf-blockade","tag-hormuz","tag-land"],"yoast_head":"\n