EPAR Research Brief #42
Fri, 07/31/2009
Authors: 
Ryan Gockel
Joelle Cook
Mary Kay Gugerty
C. Leigh Anderson
Abstract: 

Nigeria’s experience with fertilizer subsidy programs has been different than that of other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is one of the only African countries capable of producing fertilizer domestically. But Nigeria is also large and densely populated. This makes national agricultural policy difficult due to logistical problems with implementation and the unique fertilizer needs of the various agro-ecological zones. This research brief discusses the effects of Nigeria’s input subsidy programs on maize production and fertilizer consumption. It focuses on the years 2000 to 2007, but also includes a discussion of Nigeria’s subsidy history from the early 1970s to 2009. Researchers have had difficulty studying Nigeria’s subsidy schemes due to a lack of data. In spite of decades of authoritarian, centralized leadership, Nigeria’s states have significant power to implement their own subsidies. This complicates any evaluation of a program’s effectiveness, in part due to the variety of subsidies at any given time, as well as inconsistent accounting practices.

EPAR’s Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy series provides a history of government intervention in the fertilizer markets of eight Sub-Saharan African countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania. The briefs focus on details of present and past voucher programs, input subsidies, tariffs in the fertilizer sector, and the political context of these policies. The briefs illustrate these policies’ effect on key domestic crops and focus on the strengths and weaknesses of current market structure. Fertilizer policy in SSA has been extremely dynamic over the last fifty years, swinging from enormous levels of intervention in the 1960s and 70s to liberalization of markets of the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, intervention has become more moderate, focusing on “market smart” subsidies and support.

See also:

EPAR Research Brief #50: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Executive Summary

EPAR Research Brief #75: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Tanzania

EPAR Research Brief #76: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Mozambique

EPAR Research Brief #77: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Ghana

EPAR Research Brief #78: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Côte d’Ivoire

EPAR Research Brief #79: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Kenya

EPAR Research Brief #80: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Senegal

EPAR Research Brief #81: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Malawi

 

Type of Research: 
Research Brief
Research Topic Category: 
Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Livelihoods
Agricultural Inputs & Farm Management
Political Economy & Governance
Population(s): 
Countries/Governments
Smallholder Farmers
Geographic focus: 
West Africa Region and Selected Countries
Dataset(s): 
FAOSTAT

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