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impact on access and use of fertilizers across Africa. It also COVID-19 pandemic evolved, VIFAA began building on
includes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the the West Africa Fertilizer Watch and East & Southern Africa
population (overall and calculated trend over previous COVID-19 Fertilizer Watch bulletins developed by IFDC
14 days); the government/public measures taken (health and supported by AFAP and AFRIQOM.
and economy); and fertilizer-specific measures and/or
logistical issues affecting movement of fertilizers from
ports to farms (ports, roads, borders, retail, stocks and Partnerships
sector-wide responses).
AfricaFertilizer.org (AFO) – the premier source for fertilizer
statistics and information in Africa. It is hosted by IFDC
Data on COVID-19 cases comes from https://covid-api. and supported by several partners, key among them
com/ , an API based on public data from the Center for being the International Fertilizer Association (IFA), Argus
Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins Media, and Development Gateway via the VIFAA program.
University. The data repository is updated daily, and its Since 2009, AFO has been collecting, processing, and
full list of data sources are detailed there. The COVID-19 publishing fertilizer production, trade, and consumption
Africa Fertilizer Watch checks this system periodically for statistics for the main fertilizer markets in sub-Saharan
confirmed cases in each of the dashboard’s 28 supported Africa. AFO has an extensive network of fertilizer industry
countries, updating the “COVID-19 Trend” indicator players in the main fertilizer trade corridors and maintains
as new data is available. More information about the key information on the major producers, their production
methodology can be found on the COVID-19 Africa facilities and capacities, importers/suppliers, and various
Fertilizer Watch website.
distribution channels.
The project grew out of an existing partnership between The African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) –
AfricaFertilizer.org and Development Gateway, who have is an independent non-profit organization founded in 2012
been working on the Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer by a partnership of African development organizations.
for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program supported by It was built on the work of the Comprehensive African
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. VIFAA is designed Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), a framework
to holistically address the supply, demand, and use for achieving ambitious agriculture development goals set
of fertilizer data at both country and regional levels in place by African nations and leaders. AFAP implements
through dashboards and visualization tools. As the

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