Russian fertiliser: The ball in govt’s court
MBABANE – Local farmers have urged government to speed up the process of getting the confiscated fertiliser from Russia ahead of the 2023/2024 ploughing season.
The high cost of farm inputs has made farmers cognisant of every assistance made available by government’s development partners as well as countries that have bilateral relations with the kingdom.
Following the Russian Federation operation in Ukraine, the world, including Eswatini, experienced a high cost of farm inputs, in particular fertiliser and fuel. In 2022 alone, the country experienced 10 changes in prices of fuel; eight of them were price increases. The operation, which started last year February saw farmers experiencing a shortage of fertilisers and escalation of prices of other farming inputs. The escalation of prices led to farmers having to fork out more money from their pockets, thus affected the quantity of agricultural produce.
Limited
Some, with their limited budgets could not nourish their crops according to the required standard because they were unable to purchase the fertiliser at reasonable prices and in the right quantities. Some farmers could not nourish their fields because they were unable to stock the fertiliser due to shortages worldwide.
On January 24, 2023, the Russian Federation Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, during his visit to the kingdom, promised free fertiliser for emaSwati farmers. The minister was on a two-day diplomatic visit when he met the Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini and Cabinet ministers, where they discussed areas of cooperation.
Lavrov said he learnt that fertiliser was a setback for local farmers. The minister said over 280 000 tonnes of fertiliser was held at European ports. The fertiliser was in ports of Estonia, Latvia, Belgium and Netherlands. The fertiliser belonged to a Russian company known as Uralchem.
The minister mentioned that last summer, the Russian President Vladimir Putin told the United Nations (UN) that the company that owns the fertiliser said it was ready to supply all of it free of charge to countries that were in need.
He added that 260 000 tonnes of the fertiliser was to be distributed to African countries, including Eswatini. He said the only challenge they faced was the sanctions that were imposed by NATO on Russia. Lavrov pleaded with Eswatini to send a special request to the UN to find quick solutions so that the Russian fertiliser, which is lying idle in European ports, can be supplied to the Africans who are in need of it.
A month later, after the Russians announced the offer, farmers have been eager to find out what government had done to ensure that the fertiliser was delivered before the next farming season. According to the farmers, the fertiliser would ease their spending on farming input prices. This farming season, a 50 kilogrammes (kg) bag of fertiliser costs a maximum E1 350 from just E750 in 2021. The farmers stated that if the Russian fertiliser could be included in the farming input subsidy, which is offered by the National Maize Corporation (NMC), they could be able to increase their yield.
Inputs
Due to the souring prices of inputs, government ended up contributing 35 per cent of the farming inputs for farmers under the programme per hectare. Maize farmers contributed E4 900 per hectare, while government contributed E9 900. Bean farmers contributed E4 200, while government’s input was E7 800. The contribution of sorghum farmers was E2 450, while government was E4 550.
However, in the next ploughing season, the Minister of Agriculture
Jabulani Mabuza said the contribution would be 50/50.
For that reason, the farmers were of the view that government should make the extra effort as other countries did, such as Malawi, to get the fertiliser. One of the farmers, Esrome Simelane said they were hoping that the fertiliser would be part of government’s subsidy.
He said the fertiliser would save them from the shortage they encountered in agri-dealers. Simelane noted that in the previous farming season, they encountered challenges with agri-dealers because they had challenges of stocking fertiliser on time. He explained that the farming process required several forms of fertiliser. He said some farmers ended up ploughing without it because the stock arrived late to the dealers due to the global crisis.
Eswatini National Agricultural Union (ENAU) Executive Director Lwazi Mamba, said looking at the global crisis and the escalating prices of goods and services, they were of the view that the prices of farming inputs would be extremely high even this year. “Farmers need every form of support that would be available; farming inputs are very expensive,” he said. He pleaded with government to speed up the process in order to secure the fertiliser for farmers because they would need it without doubt. He said opportunities like the one that was presented by the Russian Federation should not be taken for granted but be grabbed with both hands. He said the global crisis in the agricultural sector had caused stakeholders, even government, to act as if there was a national state of disaster.
A follow up to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation was made in order to find out what government had done, following their engagement with the Russian minister. The ministry’s Communications Officer Sikhumbuzo Bhembe said the advances were given to the line ministry to start the implementation.
Honours
“The honours are now with the Ministry of Agriculture,” he said. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Sydney Simelane said he was yet to find out what was meant by forwarding the task to them. “I am yet to do my research on what they meant about notifying us because as things stands, I’m not aware of where the process is,” he said. Worth noting, the World Food Programme (WFP) report shows that 27 per cent of the entire population might be in a food shortage crisis and would need humanitarian assistance. The Ministry of Agriculture on the other hand, introduced several interventions to increase local food production. In 2021/2022 the country imported 45 000 metric tonnes of maize that was consumed in the country, which means around E200 million left the country. In 2020/2021 the country imported 64 266 metric tonnes which cost the country E304 million.According to data by the Ministry of Agriculture, the country consumes 245 435 metric tonnes of grains yearly.