French
Focus on Food Security
IFDC was established in 1974 to address global food security challenges through improved use of fertilizers and related technologies. Since IFDC’s inception, our programs have been science-based and sharply focused on the achievement of enduring solutions to soil fertility management. With an initial focus on the developing countries of the tropics and subtropics, IFDC’s target countries have expanded to include countries in transition from centrally planned to market-oriented economies.
During the past 35 years, IFDC has been instrumental in improving food security and in stimulating economic growth in many of the world’s poorest countries by addressing both supply- and demand-side issues to increase agricultural sector performance. Agriculture remains the engine for economic growth in Africa along with many countries in Asia, the former Soviet Union and Latin America.
IFDC programs work to establish policies that are conducive to the development of competitive markets and expanded trade. Improved agricultural production systems and agribusiness development are inextricably linked. Thus, IFDC’s programs are designed to simultaneously address agricultural input and output issues. Broad-based stakeholder participation and training are priorities in all IFDC development initiatives.
The Context
The global food crisis clearly demonstrates our vulnerability in the ability to feed the earth’s growing population. Many factors caused the food crisis, including drought, rising energy and production costs, population growth, new demand for biofuels, and ironically, income growth, which has led to higher meat consumption in China and India. The impact is grave, for both the urban poor in developing countries and for the poorest of rural dwellers who must buy much of their food.
The food crisis also highlights the worldwide challenges of food insecurity and poverty alleviation, resulting in numerous calls for immediate and focused action to help the world’s poorest people – most of whom are rural – and to increase efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The United Nations identified eight MDGs to spark global development. The current crisis especially emphasizes the need to achieve MDG 1: Eradication of extreme hunger and poverty by 2015. As a result, agriculture has now become the development priority it should be, given that it is the mainstay of the economies and employment in most developing countries.
Fertilizer will be key to growth in agricultural productivity. But soaring prices and energy demands mean that we can no longer rely on current products and energy-wasteful methods of fertilizer production and use. We must develop more efficient ways to provide vital nutrients to crops. We should also work with institutions that develop plants that use scarce nutrients more efficiently, are more profitable, and help clean up our environment.
Needs are greatest in Sub-Saharan Africa where farmers continually clear more land to produce barely enough to feed their families. Their markets are unreliable and often unprofitable. African farmers use almost no fertilizers or improved seeds – and Africa’s soils are increasingly depleted of nutrients.
At the other extreme are intensive rice systems in Asia where excessive use of inputs, particularly fertilizer, causes pollution and reduces profitability not only for farmers, but also for governments that subsidize fertilizer.
We face two challenges if we are to ensure food security and reduce poverty. First, we must intensify agriculture on existing farmland by adopting high-yielding varieties, increasing the use of fertilizer and other inputs, practicing better farm management, and providing better market access. Simultaneously, we must conserve our earth’s limited resources and minimize pollution from agriculture. This means that we must use our nutrient resources more efficiently.
IFDC’s Role
IFDC is a nonprofit public international organization that was established in 1974 to address global food security challenges, mainly through improved fertilizer production and use. In the early days, most IFDC staff were stationed at the Center’s headquarters in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, U.S.A.
In the late 1980s, IFDC made two changes to ensure more immediate impact of its programs. IFDC became more directly involved in development with the 1987 establishment of the Africa Division in Lomé, Togo. Simultaneously, IFDC programs were broadened to include strengthening of input markets. Efforts to improve output markets were later included when it became evident that unprofitable markets for farmers’ produce was often a barrier to greater input use.
IFDC initiated its new Strategic Framework for 2009-2013 because the changed world environment meant we must re-evaluate the most effective ways to improve the lives of both the rural and urban poor. Today’s heightened global commitment to food security, poverty alleviation, and agriculture offers new opportunities for institutions such as IFDC to have large-scale impact. Our new strategy sets forth IFDC’s vision of how to best meet new challenges and ¬fulfill the original mandate of focusing on fertilizer issues to improve food security.
IFDC plans to target fertilizer production and use to achieve Millennium Development Goal 1.
Mission and Objectives
IFDC’s mission has remained unchanged:
To increase sustainable agricultural productivity through the development and transfer of effective and environmentally sound plant nutrient technology and agricultural marketing expertise.
Key IFDC Objectives are:
Through worldwide field projects, with the backing of research:
- To increase the efficiency of nitrogen use by 50 percent, from the current average of 30 to 45 percent to 45 to 70 percent.
- To increase the yields of staple crops by at least 50 percent.
- To increase farm income by 30 to 50 percent.
Through focused research efforts:
- To make directly applied phosphate rock as effective as the more expensive water-soluble fertilizers.
IFDC’s Approach to Research and Development
IFDC has earned a reputation for working closely with developing country institutions to achieve impacts that last long after projects end. Our cornerstones for research and development are:
Collaboration With the Private Sector
IFDC’s approach to market development emphasizes the private sector as a key actor in development of productive and profitable agriculture. Farmers are part of the private sector activity. To increase production, farmers rely on inputs distributed by the private sector and on marketing of their output through the private sector.
Collaboration With Local, National, and Regional Partners
IFDC works with diverse and long-term partners at local, national, and regional levels. IFDC’s role has been as facilitator of development projects that are led and implemented by local partners.
Local Capacity Building
Local capacity building will continue to be a central component of IFDC’s development efforts. Most development assistance is short-term, so it should be structured to assure its continuation afterward. Therefore, IFDC always works to improve local capacity to ensure that local organizations will meet development challenges.
Participatory Research and Development
Participatory research and development is an important component of IFDC work, particularly in field projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. IFDC will continue to work with farmers, our program beneficiaries, to ensure that we focus our research and development on farm-level problems. IFDC will work similarly with other actors such as input dealers and output traders to improve productivity and market development. This ensures not only that the right technologies and methods are being researched and diffused, but also that targeted farmers are motivated and interested and will share best practices with other farmers.
Improving Efficiency and Productivity Across the Value Chain
IFDC will strive to improve the efficiency of both agro-inputs and markets.
Improving the Efficiency of Key Inputs
Nutrient mining is reducing soil productivity in many developing countries – particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Both mineral and organic fertilizers are essential to replace nutrients that growing crops remove. IFDC will continue to focus on improving efficiency of key inputs that smallholder farmers need to ensure sustainability of soils and natural resources.
Improve Efficiency of Nutrient Use
The price of nitrogen fertilizer is expected to remain high. Current nitrogen products and application methods are extremely inefficient. In some systems, as much as two-thirds of applied nitrogen escapes into the groundwater or the atmosphere. The unused fertilizer reduces farmers’ profits, and the escaped nitrogen becomes a pollutant. The world’s known resources of phosphate rock used to produce phosphate fertilizers are alarmingly limited and are expected to be depleted in about 130 years if we continue with our current technology. As the easily available reserves dwindle, phosphates could become the most limiting chemical resource for agricultural production. Research has shown that directly applied phosphate rock can be as effective as the far more expensive water-soluble fertilizers in certain conditions, particularly on acidic soils. Additional research is needed to develop methods for direct use in various agroclimatic conditions across the tropics and subtropics.
Develop More Efficient Fertilizer Products
IFDC is the only public organization with both the mandate and the ability to conduct fertilizer research. Nitrogen and other fertilizer products are produced through energy-intensive processes. With the current high costs of fertilizer and its raw materials, IFDC will direct more resources to the development of the “next generation” of fertilizer products and methods that are more efficient, productive, cost effective, and environmentally friendly. We will also further deploy technologies that have already been proven to improve fertilizer use efficiency, such as urea deep placement for nitrogen.
Improve Efficiency of Water and Nutrient Delivery to Crops
Agriculture is, by far, the greatest human consumer of water. But agricultural water is becoming scarce in many areas as climate changes and population increases. Additional irrigation is often needed for fertilizer and other inputs to express their full potential. IFDC will increasingly focus on developing management techniques, taking into consideration the interactions between fertilizer and water inputs, to deliver water and fertilizer more efficiently to growing crops. Examples include fertigation, or applying fertilizer in irrigation water.
Improving Market Efficiency
IFDC will continue to improve the efficiency of markets in developing countries through a three-part focus that has been developed over the past 15 years. This includes efforts to:
Improve Efficiency of Input Markets
Profitable farming for smallholders requires timely access to affordable fertilizers and other farm inputs. Over the past 20 years, IFDC has developed a holistic approach to input market development, which has five pillars: Policy Environment, Human Capital Development, Access to Business Finance, Market Information, and Regulatory Frameworks. Deficiencies in any pillar can cause poor input sector performance. Therefore, IFDC’s approach is to simultaneously improve factors in each of the five pillars. Development of input markets through voucher programs will be further emphasized.
Improve Efficiency of Farm Enterprises
Helping smallholder farmers and their organizations develop the skills needed to manage their farms as enterprises is a relatively new area of IFDC work. This allows farmers to participate more in commercial food production, both to meet their families’ food needs and to increase incomes. Training in both technical use of inputs and business skills is essential.
Improve Efficiency of Output Markets
Output markets provide the “pull” for input market development. IFDC is increasingly focusing on the development of output markets, mainly for staple crops. International markets are often volatile and difficult to access, so IFDC stresses the need to always consider whether potential national and regional markets are underexploited. IFDC will continue to help farmers identify and access profitable markets, usually through producer organizations, with a focus on information management, and by working with all participants in the agricultural value chain.
Special Initiatives
IFDC will start three new initiatives that will bring together multidisciplinary teams that include economists, agronomists, sociologists and production engineers. Project activities will be reviewed yearly and the teams will report directly to the IFDC President and CEO. The Program Committee of the IFDC Board of Directors will review progress in the initiatives.
Africa Productivity Initiative
Background:
Yields of grains and other staple crops in Sub-Saharan Africa are only about 25 percent of the world average. An African Green Revolution, spearheaded by greater use of fertilizer, improved seeds, and based on good crop management, is urgently needed. This initiative captures the essence of the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for an African Green Revolution, issued at the Africa Fertilizer Summit in June 2006 in Abuja, Nigeria. Sharpening focus on productivity in IFDC’s field-level projects across Africa will bring greater food security and income growth. The Africa Committee of the IFDC Board will review progress in this initiative.
Objective:
To double crop yields of assisted farmers.
Nitrogen Efficiency Initiative
Background:
The efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer use is as low as 30%, particularly in lowland rice, a crop crucial to feeding growing urban populations. Low nitrogen efficiency stems from both outdated fertilizer products and inappropriate application methods. In the short term, improving application methods to reduce losses will improve profitability and lower nitrogen pollution to water and the atmosphere.
Objective:
To increase, for assisted farmers, the efficiency of nitrogen use to at least 45 percent, thus increasing profits while reducing pollution.
Phosphate Efficiency Initiative
Background:
Phosphate reserves are dwindling and conversion to the current suite of water-soluble products is expensive and inefficient. Improving the availability of phosphorus to crops from directly applied phosphate rock in diverse agroclimatic conditions and cropping systems is essential.
Objective:
The Phosphate Efficiency Initiative will make directly applied phosphate rock as effective as the more expensive water-soluble fertilizers.
Managing for Results
IFDC is a research organization based on a highly skilled, cohesive cadre of international scientists and development professionals who are motivated by its organizational mission and dedicated to upholding its value system. To achieve these goals, IFDC will improve human resource development through continuous staff training.
IFDC will maintain its cutting-edge position as the world’s foremost public institution in the development of fertilizer products. IFDC will place more emphasis on research on fertilizer products and application methods over the next 5 years. IFDC will continuously update its scientific capacity, facilities, and equipment to effectively implement a large research program. IFDC will also keep pace with rapid advances in communication technology to provide better information flow and more opportunities for networking.
Finally, to ensure that our own activities are responsible and sustainable, IFDC will conduct an organizational audit to determine ways to reduce our own carbon footprint and improve the efficiency of our own energy use.
Photo Caption and Credit:
Nyahara, Mozambique. Photo by Meg Ross