Experts identify, proffer solutions to NPK fertiliser hurdles

Yesterday, the NPK Fertiliser Technical Working Group (TWG) and stakeholders concluded the validation of the 2025 statistics and discussed the burning issues affecting quality, adulteration, wrong formulations and cost. Experts from AfricaFertiliser, the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC), members of the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), fertiliser blenders and other stakeholders met […]

Yesterday, the NPK Fertiliser Technical Working Group (TWG) and stakeholders concluded the validation of the 2025 statistics and discussed the burning issues affecting quality, adulteration, wrong formulations and cost.

Experts from AfricaFertiliser, the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC), members of the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), fertiliser blenders and other stakeholders met in Kaduna to examine the current statistics and the challenges affecting the supply of NPK in the country.

The IFDC country representative and the national programme coordinator for HorNigeria, Mohammed Salasi Idris, while addressing delegates said, “This year has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging for Nigeria’s fertiliser sector.”

He said, “The NPK Technical Working Group was established when Nigeria shifted from depending on imported NPK formulations to developing a strong domestic blending industry. Traditional data sources could no longer fully reflect the realities of our evolving sector; and this platform was created as a credible and collaborative response. It has since served as a space where producers, blenders, regulators and development partners jointly validate actual production figures.”

The experts categorised the NPK production in the country into traditional and non-traditional blends.

Traditional NPK are blends with formulations and raw material mixtures accustomed to farmers. In contrast, non-traditional blends are blends with either a new formulation or the same formulations as the traditional blends but with a mixture of distinctive raw materials, such as Granular Ammonium Sulphate (GAS).

Currently, there are two categories of non-traditional blends: one targeted at the commercial market and the other for specific crop/soil needs and based on demand.

They noted that previously, traditional blends accounted for 70-100 per cent of the total production. From 2021 to 2023, it accounted for between 70-95 per cent, but in 2024 it only accounted for 11 per cent of the total products blended.

But with the introduction of GAS to the blending industry, the narrative is gradually changing, as more volumes of non-traditional blends are now being produced.

 

Current production statistics

Mr Samuel Ali, the senior fertiliser market specialist for the International Fertiliser Development Centre, while presenting the NPK fertiliser production overview in Nigeria covering 2017–2024, said significant progress had been made in terms of data, but certain issues needed to be addressed.

Official production data, which is compiled from the NSIA, FEPSAN and fertiliser blenders, put together by AfricaFertilizer and the IFDC, show that production rose from 630,593 metric tonnes in 2023 to 693,189 tonnes in 2024.

However, the current data show that 587,407 metric tonnes of NPK was produced this year (2025) between January and the first week of November. The figures are expected to rise when all the data are compiled in January 2026.

The 2024 data on NPK production by states show that Kano State alone has produced about 243,610 metric tonnes, followed by Kaduna, which produced 189,890 tonnes.

States like Katsina produced 29,534 tonnes, Bauchi 20,898 tonnes, Edo, 22,827, Kogi, 12,258, and Sokoto, 12,934 tonnes.

The least producing states include Kebbi, 1,950 tonnes, Niger 2,056 tonnes, Nasarawa 3,933 tonnes, and Kwara, 302 tonnes.

With these statistics, about 90 per cent of NPK fertilisers blended in the country in 2024 were done in the North-West and South-West zones, while the other regions contributed the remaining 10 per cent of the NPK blends.

Data show that the North-West is leading in both traditional and non-traditional blends as it contributes 70 per cent of the total production for 2024, majorly due to its high number of blending plants.

However, there was an observable growth in the production of non-traditional (specialised) blends in the North-Central. The non-traditional (special) blends in these regions include NPK 20-10-5+S, NPK 2-1-56, and NPK 20-10-10+S, and other special blends.

 

NPK blending plants hit 90

Statistics also show that the number of companies participating in the local NPK production is increasing yearly.

Nigeria now has the highest number of blending plants in sub-Saharan Africa with about 90 blending plants as at 2024, according to the IFDC data.

For the production of granulated urea fertiliser in Nigeria, three companies – Notore Chemical Industries PLC, Indorama Fertilisers & Chemical – both located at Onne, Rivers State, and Dangote Fertiliser Limited located in Lagos – produced over 3 million tonnes last year.

 

Issues identified

The experts have identified a number of issues, particularly with the formulations, labelling of some specific NPK blends, mode of adulteration, use of DAP directly by farmers instead of just for blending purposes, and many other issues.

Mr Fred Gyasi, the deputy programme manager, AfricaFertiliser at the IFDC, told Weekend Trust that initially, there was no data, adding that currently, data is being improved year in, year out.

He said one of the things that had arisen at the moment was the use of GAS (Granular Ammonium Sulphate), popularly called GAS in Nigeria, for blending NPK fertilisers.

“When you use this Granular Ammonium Sulphate to blend, that means you have sulfur content in it. When you look at the ECOWAS labelling manual, it tells you that on a bag you should declare all the contents of the fertiliser in it.

“So, if your fertiliser is having NPK plus sulfur, plus zinc, plus boron, everything that is contained in the fertiliser bag should be written so that when the farmer is paying for it, he knows what he or she is buying. But we see that this is not the case here in Nigeria. Some people are doing this while some people are not. This is where FEPSAN also comes in to train their members to know that you need to put all the contents of your fertiliser on the bag.

“As I talked about the Granular Ammonium Sulphate, when you use it, it gives you sulfur in your formulation. But when you see some of the formulations that are being put out there, it is not the right one. It could be that it’s a data capture error or it could be that the people who are doing it don’t really know the sulfur content that is there, so they will need a bit of training,” he said.

Another issue that came up is the availability of DAP, which is made for blending but ends up with farmers directly. This has serious implications for soil health and promotes indiscriminate mixing of different components by farmers themselves without technical knowledge.

This problem is further worsening the adulteration situation in the country as people now blend the fertiliser at home using the blending materials, especially DAP available in the markets.

Some of the presentations on market research showed most of the fertiliser brands failed the quantity test. Some of the adulteration activities are said to be happening along the supply chains.

This situation has made stakeholders to call for checks and arrest those selling these blending materials directly to the farmers under the Fertilizer Quality Control Act 2019.

Mr Samuel Alli, in his presentation, also observed that “some NPK formulations require review due to their similarity to raw materials. For instance, NPK 18-46-1 is almost identical to DAP (18-46-0) and blends like NPK 1-2-56 or NPK 2-1-56 closely resemble MOP (0-0-60).”

Experts at the meeting also observed that some NPK formulas need to be checked; they are either incorrectly entered or indicate a need for training for blenders, noting that building capacity of blenders has been recognised as essential to enhance blending processes, improve data collection and ensure accurate product labelling.

Stakeholders agreed that “blenders must ensure transparency by clearly listing the precise formulations and all nutrients contained in their fertiliser products.”

Olusegun Falade, an engineer and the vice president of FEPSAN, told Weekend Trust in an exclusive interview that the association had made out strategies to deal with adulteration, adding that those involved are highly coordinated.

Falade said one of such methods was the deployment of technology, which will allow farmers to identify fake products within a few minutes. He said the association had looked at technology that would help the blenders to deal with the adulteration and counterfeiting menace squarely.

With no production in some states, logistics issues have triggered price rise compared to states that have blending production plants.

To strengthen the sector, experts recommended an improvement in data capturing, a monitoring system and setting up a task force to check the excesses of criminals adulterating and counterfeiting fertiliser products in the country.