Ministry Stresses Need for Domestic Production of Organic Fertilizers

Addis Ababa April  19/2022 /ENA/ It is important to produce organic fertilizers from available resources to supplement chemical fertilizers, according to Ministry of Agriculture.

Opening “Organic Fertilizers for Sustainable Agriculture, Environment Health and Foreign Currency Saving” workshop today, Agriculture State Minister Professor Eyasu Elias said producing organic fertilizers from available resources to supplement chemical fertilizers is crucial.

"All we need is to feed our crops with nutrients, for that reason there are so many technologies and alternative options that would supplement chemical fertilizer, but obviously will not replace," he added.

According to him, whatever resources the country has should be efficiently utilized to supplement the meager resource that it has for fertilizer purchase. "For that reason today's workshop on fertilizer strategy is crucially important." 

Stating the abundant resources for fertilizer production in Ethiopia and the significant price increase of fertilizer at the global market as well as the supply restrictions, the state minister underlined that the increasing price for importation cannot be sustained unless domestic production of fertilizer is started.

"We can’t really sustain at this level of price escalation. The Ethiopian government should immediately start local domestic fertilizer production.”

The government has discussed the issue of domestically producing fertilizer amid the significant increase of fertilizer price at global market and the disruption of supply to Ethiopia, Professor Eyasu revealed.

The country has been recently facing serious problem of fertilizer supply, he noted, adding that fertilizer supply is a problem for the very first reason that Ethiopia is a net importer of fertilizer and totally dependent on external suppliers. 

Domestic fertilizer production is crucially important and at government corners this has been discussed.

The state minister urged the workshop participants and researchers to think of alternative sources of inputs and nutrients that would supplement fertilizer and help in enlightening the application of domestic resources.