Yara fertilizer plan aims to fight Covid hunger impact

Norwegian fertilizer producer Yara has launched an initiative supported by the UN, Norway's government and several African institutions, that it said will provide 40,000t of fertilizers and aims to feed more than 1mn people in southern and eastern Africa for a year.

Yara, which is committing $25mn to the project, said another goal of "Action Africa: Thriving Farms, Thriving Future" — launched because of Covid-19's impact on world hunger problems — is to generate support for 250,000 smallholder farmers.

The key aim is to feed 1mn people across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique for one year, through an expected tripling of maize production.

Yara will provide 40,000t of zinc-fortified complex fertilizers. But the initiative will also include advocacy and partnerships, farmer connectivity, digital solutions, and agronomic support.

Yara has become increasingly focused on forging working relationships with farmers, partly by utilising digital technology, and last year agreed a partnership with US technology firm IBM with that focus in mind.

President and chief executive Svein Tore Holsether said that Yara, as a "critical part of the food value chain", has a responsibility to support vulnerable farming communities and help avert a hunger crisis.

The initiative will be supported by the African Green Revolution Forum (Africa Food Forum), Generation Africa, and the Farm to Market Alliance, Yara said.

The fertilizer producer will work with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership, the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa and other regional and local bodies to help support farmers digitally, agronomically and operationally.

WFP executive director David Beasley said Covid-19 "threatens to become a global humanitarian catastrophe that could deal a fatal blow to communities already on the edge of survival" and that the Yara-led initiative provides a good model for how the private sector and individual companies can "step up".

Yara also hopes that the project becomes a catalyst for other private-sector players to join a co-ordinated effort to improve farm productivity, meet local food demand, grow farmer incomes and improve population health through better nutrition, it said.

By David Maher