About the Project
East Africa’s economy is mainly agrarian, with more than 65 percent of its people dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Over 80 percent of the food in the region comes from small holders – farmers with less than 2 hectares of land. Many farmers in the region have limited access to high quality fertilizers, due to high costs. Mismatches between fertilizer and crop type, as well as lack of knowledge on fertilizer use compound the problem. Fertilizer application rates in Sub Saharan Africa are far lower than global averages, in some cases, as low as 10 percent of recommended levels. Crop yields and food production suffer as a result.
In 2017, IFC and the Private Sector Window of °µÍøÁÔÆæ made a joint $10 million investment in Fertiplant, a fertilizer distributor in the East African region, to develop the nascent Kenyan fertilizer industry. The investment will be used to construct and operate a fertilizer granulation plant in Nakuru, in Kenya’s Central Rift Valley, and will produce 100,000 tons of fertilizer per year. The new plant will supply locally produced fertilizer at affordable prices, helping farmers improve crop yields and their incomes. Better productivity of staple food crops will also be critical to food security in the region, which is currently suffering from drought. The project is