IPNI and Partners Building Capacity of Kenyan, Rwanda and Tanzania Fertilizer Companies

Through support of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) has trained over 60 fertilizer company agronomists and other fertilizer stakeholders in separate workshops held in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania between February and June 2017. For Kenya the field fertilizer agronomists were drawn from: Mavuno Fertilizers, Soil Cares Ltd, MEA fertilizer Ltd, ICL-Fertilizers, Minjingu Mines & Fertilizers Ltd, Export Trading Group (ETG) Ltd, Yara East Africa and OCP Africa. For Rwanda the trainees were drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI), Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), Yara East Africa, Balton fertilizer Ltd, Rwanda Standards Board, Nurenzi Company, Input Dealers Association, Regional Potato Trading Company, and National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB). For Tanzania the trainees were drawn from: Premium Agro Chem, Yara (T) Ltd, Balton (T) Ltd, Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Ltd (MeTL AGRO), TriaChem (T) Ltd, Tanzania Fertilizer Company, Minjingu Mines & Fertilizer Ltd, Export Trading Group (ETG) Ltd and Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. The facilitators were drawn from the IPNI led soil health consortia for Eastern and Southern Africa platform. They included scientists, policy and market experts from IFDC, IPNI, AFAP, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KARLO), Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB), Input Divisions in the Ministry of Agriculture, Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority (TFRA) and special projects like TAMASA among others. The IPNI trainers included Dr. Shamie Zingore, Dr. James Mutegi, Dr. Jairos Rurinda and Joses Muthamia. The training subjects included: Fertilizer Formulation, Fertilizer Blending, 4R Nutrient Stewardship, Soil data and mapping, Nutrient omission trials, country level fertilizer market projections and country level fertilizer policy and regulatory framework. Speaking at the opening of Rwanda training workshop, Dr. Daphrose Gahakwa, the Deputy Director RAB emphasized the need for regular affordable fertilizer training/workshops to reduce the confusion that exist in the African fertilizer environment. On the other hand, at the close of Tanzania workshop the chairperson of the Tanzania Agricultural Input Association expressed gratitude to organizers and requested for regular similar trainings. He emphasized that The Tanzania Input Association was ready to meet some of the costs of such trainings. IPNI is planning similar trainings for fertilizer stakeholders in Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia and Malawi.