Status: active

Agriculture is critical to the overall economic growth and development of Kenya. It is one of the five sectors that Kenya has identified to lead in economic transformation under the current President’s economic transformation agenda. The five identified priority sectors are agriculture, trade, a digital and creative economy, affordable housing and health. Fertilizer is key to this transformation. The expected agricultural sector contribution is however being diminished, by a number of challenges key among them currency depreciation, climate change, high cost of inputs and lack of more site and crop specific fertilizer availabilities resulting in lower agricultural production than expected. As a result, the agricultural sector is not performing to its fullest potential. With appropriate technologies and good agricultural practices, there should be an increase in crop production. Kenya’s food importation costs such as maize, wheat and rice are also extremely high. For instance, Kenya is consuming over a million tons of rice yet only producing about one fifty thousand tons. These food imports alongside fertilizer and fuel are big factor contributors to the currency devaluation due to an on-going deficit trade balance. Kenya is thus at a cross point where it has to significantly bring down the total food import bill to avoid IMF reforms which means ramping up of domestic food production for which the right fertilizer is key.Kenya’s current fertilizer demand stands at approx. 750,000MT and is anticipated to cross the million mark and possibly double in the next three years, with the government’s planned agricultural investment opportunities that include availing over a million of acres for crop production. A total of 160 fertilizer types are imported and used in the country but the majority of these fertilizer types are NPK formulations imported in small quantities for the horticulture industry.The government has acknowledged the need to move away from blanket fertilizer recommendations for the whole country, to a more precise, science based regime. In 2023, the Kenyan government is committed to supporting six million farmers under the government fertilizer subsidy and supplying more than 500,000MT of various types of fertilizers at affordable prices.