The Mauritanian Ministry of Agriculture announced on Saturday that it had received 6,000 tonnes of fertilizer, a sufficient quantity to cover the needs of the 2021-2022 agricultural campaign.
The ministry said in a statement that it had received 10,000 tonnes of urea and 5,000 tonnes of compound fertilizer (DAP) to be added to 360,728 liters of propanyl and 125,226 liters of D 2.4. The total cost of support from the state budget for the autumn rice campaign reached MRO 4,740,582,290.
The press release adds that this quantity was acquired as part of a contract between the ministry and the food security commissioner to ensure the success of the agricultural campaign this year.
According to the ministry, these inputs are sufficient to cover the needs of the autumn 2022 rice campaign and the winter campaign for vegetables and wheat.
According to the press release from the ministry, these inputs were obtained in a difficult global context characterized by the covid-19 pandemic the Russian-Ukrainian war which greatly impacts the rise in the price of agricultural inputs.
These difficult conditions, adds the press release, have tripled the prices of inputs, in particular those of urea and compound fertilizers, which has not prevented the government from maintaining a level of between 50 and 70% of fertilizers and herbicides.
The ministry communiqué set the prices of agricultural inputs to farmers at MRO 210 per kg of urea, MRO 195 per kg of compound fertilizers (DAP), MRO 1130 per liter of propanyl and MRO 910 per liter of D2.4 pesticide.
By comparing prices, the press release mentions a slight increase in the price of urea (55 MRO), a drop in that of compound fertilizers by 5 MRO, while the price of herbicides remains at its level for the 2021 campaign.
The Mauritanian President, Mohamed O. Cheikh El Ghazouani, had launched, almost two weeks ago, the agricultural campaign of the fall, working to ensure that this marks the real start of the country’s food self-sufficiency.
Sahara Media