‎By Zekeri Idakwo

‎For practically 20 years, the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Affiliation of Nigeria (FEPSAN) has quietly led one of the vital consequential revolutions in Nigeria’s agricultural area.

‎In a rustic that after struggled with fertilizer shortage, excessive costs, and unchecked adulteration, FEPSAN has emerged as a gamechanger—one whose efforts at the moment are feeding not simply farms but in addition fuelling nationwide meals safety.

‎Shaped in 2004, FEPSAN introduced collectively producers, blenders, distributors, and sellers below a unified mission: to enhance native manufacturing, reform coverage frameworks, guarantee provide chain effectivity, and advocate accountable fertilizer use that preserves each soil well being and the atmosphere.

‎These foundational targets laid the trail for a metamorphosis that now anchors Nigeria’s potential to develop what it eats. The turning level got here in 2016 with the launch of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI).

‎On the time, Nigeria was depending on imported fertilizers, and the few operational mixing crops have been unable to fulfill demand. However right now, the story reads in another way.

‎With over 90 mixing crops and three main urea manufacturing amenities unfold throughout the nation, fertilizer manufacturing capability has soared by greater than 300% since 2017.

‎Urea giants resembling Dangote, Indorama, and Notore now serve each native and export markets, boosting nationwide self-sufficiency in agricultural inputs. The outcome is not only industrial progress—it’s a strategic increase to meals manufacturing.

‎By making fertilizers extra out there and reasonably priced, and by selling blends tailor-made to particular soils and crops, FEPSAN helps farmers produce extra with much less. This has a direct bearing on meals availability, pricing, and safety in each rural and concrete areas.

‎Sadiq Kassim, President of FEPSAN, attributes these beneficial properties to robust public-private sector coordination. FEPSAN, he notes, has develop into a linchpin on this transformation—coordinating stakeholders, enhancing provide chain transparency, and pushing for enabling insurance policies that safeguard investments in agriculture.

‎The affiliation’s management has not wavered, even amid challenges that may have crippled much less resilient sectors. Amongst these challenges is the widespread adulteration of fertilizers.

‎Regardless of the enactment of the Nationwide Fertilizer High quality Management Act in 2019, enforcement stays tepid. Counterfeit merchandise nonetheless flood the markets, undercutting the credibility of trusted manufacturers, disempowering farmers, and threatening yields.

‎Govt Secretary of FEPSAN, Gideon Nagedu warns that with out stronger regulatory motion, the integrity of Nigeria’s meals chain might be compromised. The business has additionally needed to navigate international shocks.

‎The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine battle disrupted provide chains and spiked uncooked materials prices by as a lot as 150%.

‎Entry to overseas alternate continues to hinder the importation of crucial inputs like Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Muriate of Potash (MOP), pushing up manufacturing prices and placing strain on finish customers—farmers who’re already grappling with climate-related challenges.

‎Regardless of these odds, FEPSAN has laid out an formidable imaginative and prescient for the long run—one rooted in resilience, innovation, and meals safety. For the 2025 farming season, over a million metric tons of NPK blends are anticipated to be produced, exceeding all earlier data.

‎This huge scale-up will considerably enhance fertilizer entry and double nationwide consumption charges, guaranteeing that extra farmers can domesticate bigger, more healthy harvests.

‎The restructuring of the PFI right into a extra agile entity—PFI-NPK Ltd—has made the system extra conscious of native blenders. By way of this, uncooked supplies at the moment are accessed extra cost-effectively and well timed, decreasing delays that usually jeopardize planting seasons.

‎Logistics and administrative prices, which as soon as inflated costs by as much as 10%, have been trimmed by bulk procurement and streamlined negotiation processes. And the give attention to high quality continues to deepen.

‎FEPSAN is actively creating particular, soil-specific and crop-specific fertilizer formulations in partnership with main analysis establishments. These are being complemented by last-mile extension providers to information farmers on correct utility, maximizing yields whereas minimizing waste.

‎Equally vital is FEPSAN’s dedication to local weather resilience. By way of help for the Soil Well being Card initiative and alignment with seasonal predictions from the Nigerian Meteorological Company (NiMET), the Affiliation helps farmers make knowledgeable, weather-smart selections.

‎These interventions should not simply technical—they’re lifelines for hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers whose potential to develop meals is below fixed menace. To consolidate progress, FEPSAN is asking on the federal government to totally implement the Fertilizer High quality Management Act and empower regulatory companies just like the Requirements Organisation of Nigeria to go after product adulterators.

‎Entry to foreign exchange and financing should even be expanded to help native producers, whereas present restrictions on agricultural imports ought to be maintained to guard homegrown business.

‎By way of all these efforts, FEPSAN is making a compelling case that Nigeria’s meals safety shouldn’t be a dream deferred—it’s a actuality below development.

‎The Affiliation’s impression, from reviving moribund crops to orchestrating a nationwide fertilizer distribution system, is already altering the fortunes of farmers and feeding hundreds of thousands.

‎However the work is way from over. Sustaining these beneficial properties would require continued coverage help, unwavering regulatory enforcement, and a dynamic embrace of innovation in manufacturing and supply.

‎If these circumstances are met, Nigeria is not going to solely obtain home meals sufficiency—it would develop into a fertilizer and meals manufacturing powerhouse throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Zekeri Idakwo writes from PRNigeria Centre, Wuye Abuja