A Kaduna-based agritech company, Al Zira’a Tech, has rolled out a fully organic fertiliser it says will protect Nigerian farmers from the price volatility of imported synthetic inputs while helping the country’s export crops meet international standards.
The company’s Managing Director, Farouk Dalhatu, in an interview with THE WHISTLER said the product, Greengrow, was built to solve two problems facing Nigerian farmers at once: the high cost of synthetic inputs and the rejection of Nigerian produce abroad over chemical residue.
“Nigerian farmers deserve an input that’s both affordable and genuinely good for their soil and their harvest,” Dalhatu said. “Greengrow was built to solve two problems at once.”
He said Greengrow’s local sourcing was central to keeping its price stable.
“Because Greengrow is sourced 100 percent from local raw materials, we’re not exposed to the naira’s swings against the dollar the way synthetic fertiliser importers and blenders are,” he said.
“When forex rates jump, imported urea and NPK prices jump with them, and it’s the smallholder farmer who absorbs that shock. Sourcing locally means we can keep prices more predictable and within reach for the average Nigerian farmer.”
Dalhatu also linked the product to a recurring problem for Nigerian exporters.
“A lot of our export crops have been rejected or flagged abroad because of chemical residue buildup, largely tied to heavy synthetic NPK and urea use,” he said.
“That’s a real threat to farmer livelihoods and to Nigeria’s reputation as an exporter.
Because Greengrow is 100 percent organic, it removes that risk entirely, giving farmers a product that improves soil health over time instead of degrading it, while keeping their produce clean and export-ready.”
He said what sets Greengrow apart from other products on the market is that it is fully organic rather than organic-labelled.
“Many products on the market blend organic materials with synthetic compounds. Greengrow doesn’t, it’s 100 percent organic, so there’s no chemical residue buildup in the soil or in the crop itself,” he said, adding that every raw material used is sourced within Nigeria.
“That’s what protects the price from forex volatility, something synthetic fertiliser producers who depend on imported feedstock can’t offer.”
“Put together, farmers get a product that’s cheaper to sustain, safer for long-term soil fertility, and produces crops that meet international export standards without the residue problem,” Dalhatu said.
The launch comes against the backdrop of a wide gap between Nigeria’s fertiliser needs and what farmers actually use. Consumption has hovered around 1.64 million metric tonnes in recent years, recovering from a dip to 1.3 million tonnes the year before, according to ChemAnalyst data.
Industry estimates cited by The Guardian Nigeria put real farmer demand at just 500,000 metric tonnes annually, well short of what the country could use if application rates matched African benchmarks.
Nigerian farmers currently apply about 24 kilogrammes of fertiliser per hectare, against an African target of 50 kilogrammes, according to Fmino.
That demand shortfall exists even though Nigeria’s installed production capacity is estimated at between 8 million and 16 million metric tonnes of assorted fertiliser annually, according to The Guardian Nigeria and Fmino, meaning the country produces far more than it currently consumes.
Dalhatu said affordability remains the biggest barrier between that capacity and the amount farmers actually apply to their fields, a gap he said Al Zira’a Tech is working to close with locally sourced alternatives.
(The Whistler)
