East Africa's awareness of Polysulphate grows

18 września 2018

East African opportunity for Polysulphate in ‘Feed the Future’

Swahili version of Polysulphate information welcomed in East Africa.

The spread of awareness about Polysulphate and its potential to lift agricultural productivity in East Africa is helped with a new leaflet about Polysulphate published in Swahili.

Agriculture: foundation of life and business

Agriculture is one of East Africa’s most important economic drivers. About 80% of the population of the region depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Food and commodity crops grown in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda reach local, regional and international consumers.

Limited by inadequate crop nutrition

Productivity and quality of crops is often limited by inadequate crop nutrition. This is why throughout East Africa there are efforts to supply farmers with information about better crop nutrition products. These will help to sustainably nourish staple foods such as maize, rice, potatoes, bananas, cassava, beans, vegetables, sugar, wheat, sorghum, millet and pulses and also improve returns for cultivating cash crops such as coffee, tea, fruits and horticultural exports.

Fertilizer: a foundation for crop improvement and economic development

The Feed the Future initiative, is one of USAID’s regional activities to improve food security in East Africa. It aims to help smallholder farmers to increase productivity of key staple foods and cash crops and link these producers to viable markets.

USAID supported the production of Polysulphate information in Swahili to enable more East African farmers and their advisors to hear direct about this natural fertilizer’s perfect balance of key crop nutrients and how these are effectively supplied over a long period of time. It is also a useful resource for the work with 3000 small scale farmers who are currently part the work by ICL with USAID demonstrating benefits of balanced and precise fertilizer use in two provinces in southern Tanzania.

The language of progress

Over 100 million people in Africa speak Swahili. It is the most extensively spoken language in sub-Saharan Africa and used in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and parts of Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Mozambique and Democratic Republic of Congo. Read the Polysulphate leaflet in Swahili.