@article{Heisey:7688,
      recid = {7688},
      author = {Heisey, Paul W. and Mwangi, Wilfred},
      title = {Fertilizer Use and Maize Production in Sub-Saharan Africa},
      address = {1996},
      number = {556-2016-38778},
      series = {Economics Working Paper 96-01},
      pages = {43},
      year = {1996},
      abstract = {In sub-Saharan Africa, greater use of mineral fertilizers  is crucial to increasing food production and slowing the  rate of environmental degradation. Regional growth rates in  fertilizer consumption have never been particularly high,  in part because the real price of fertilizer is higher in  Africa than in many other developing regions. As subsidies  have been removed and exchange-rate distortions corrected  over the past decade or more, relative prices paid by  farmers have risen to reflect more closely the economic  cost of fertilizer. Consumption growth has thus slowed even  more.  Nonetheless, during the period of declining growth  in consumption, fertilizer use on cereals, particularly  maize, has become relatively more important than use on  cash crops. Strategies for increasing fertilizer use should  thus direct more attention to maize and other important  staples. In higher potential areas, some fertilizer use on  maize is often economically profitable even at higher  relative prices of fertilizer. Additional research on the  limiting nutrient under farmers' conditions or on the  interactions between nutrients and other crop-management  factors could help to increase profitability. Policy  analysis for Africa's fertilizer sector has tended to focus  on subsidies and to neglect other important issues, such as  solving credit problems at many points in the marketing  channel, supporting appropriate agricultural research, and  developing and maintaining infrastructure. Agricultural  sector strategies that give sufficient attention to these  issues must be developed. Although subsidy removal must be  one ultimate policy objective, we recommend gradual  withdrawal in countries where fertilizer consumption levels  are relatively high. Because many African governments  require time and stability to develop policy capacity,  detailed institutional analyses can help design second-best  solutions to problems of fertilizer policy.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/7688},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.7688},
}