SA Grain July 2017

– Fertasa 57th Annual Congress

Julie 2017

Creating sustainability through

linkages in agriculture

he Fertasa 57th Annual Congress held

in Durban, revolved around the theme

sustainability. The congress took place

on 4 May with speakers from different

backgrounds within the agricultural industry

presenting on different elements related to

sustainability.

The congress was attended by various in-

dustry role-players from fertiliser companies,

producer organisations and government de-

partments.

We received a warm welcome from the Fer-

tasa CEO, Dr Pieter Haumann, who welcomed

the Fertasa chairman, Adriaan de Lange, to

deliver the Chairman’s report.

In his Chairman’s report for the 2016/2017

year, De Lange highlighted two events that

had an effect on the agricultural industry in

2016. He started by highlighting the after ef-

fects of the worst drought in 25 years that had

a major effect on crop production through-

out the country and its influence that filtered

through to the economy and farm conditions.

The drought exacerbated farm debt to in-

crease by 27%, while maize prices increased

at the back of a weaker rand and shortage

of stock sent prices trading at import parity

levels.

Weather was not the only problem that the

industry was faced with in the drought strick-

en period, however. The second crisis that

affected the local agriculture industry was

caused by an influx of cheaper chicken im-

ports from Northern American and European

markets, which has been a problem since

2009. This had a devastating effect on the

local poultry industry.

The long term effect of dumping, if left un-

checked, could impact on industries such as

grain production, banking, insurance, agro-

chemical, fertiliser, packaging, logistics and

processing industries and ultimately, this

could result in major job losses.

With controllable situations such as dump-

ing, the industry requires strong political and

industry leadership to introduce sustainable

measures to protect the local industries, the

economy and its people.

Touching on the fertiliser industry, De Lange

noted the pressure that continues to remain

on international fertiliser prices. The rapid in-

crease in new capacity is currently outpaced

by demand, which impacts on prices. It is

therefore believed that international fertiliser

prices are likely to remain low for the foresee-

able future as demand grows and the industry

rationalises.

The demand for fertiliser is impacted due to

an increase in environmental and health con-

sciousness and because concepts such as

nutrient use efficiency, water use efficiency

and nutrition are becoming high on the global

agenda.

Therefore, the sustainability of this industry

is sustained by water, soil, climate change

and agriculture as a whole. The speakers took

it back to the basics, explaining the way for-

ward in terms of the sustainability of these

elements that impact on the sustainability of

the fertiliser industry.

Mr Paul Makepeace of the African Fertilizer

and Agribusiness Partnerships (AFAP) indi-

cated in his presentation on the medium term

future of the global fertiliser industry, that

external forces such as climate change and

policy may have a greater impact on the ferti-

liser industry.

Climate change has an opportunity to grow

the fertiliser industry, rather than affecting

the demand negatively. Meanwhile, inter-

national factors are more likely to affect the

growth of this industry, rather than domestic

policy factors.

On the sustainability of water, Dr Sylvester

Mpandeli drew attention to the goal of the

Water Research Commission (WRC), which is

to generate relevant information that can ben-

efit the water reliant industries, such as agri-

culture.

He said that smallholder farmers have ex-

treme adaptability and they need to be given

information to avoid certain risks in this wa-

ter scarce industry. Furthermore, Dr Mpandeli

indicated the WRC’s goal, which is to bench-

mark based on what is happening internation-

ally in order to align their activities with the

global agenda.

With soil as an integral part of agriculture,

Prof Isaiah Wakindiki posed an interest-

ing question which is one that we need to

FOCUS

Fertiliser

Special

MICHELLE MOKONE,

agricultural economist, Grain SA

1: Dr Pieter Haumann

2: Adriaan de Lange

3: Paul Makepeace

4: Dr Sylvester Mpandeli