Most fertilizer is applied in solid granule form but liquid forms of ammonia-based fertilizers are also available. Fertilizers are sold either as single nutrient, “straight” fertilizers or multi-nutrient fertilizers in the form of compounds or blends. Urea fertilizer, for example, is a single nutrient fertilizer, 46% nitrogen by weight. Compound fertilizers contain multiple nutrients in each granule with all granules manufactured to have the same nutrient composition. Fertilizer blends are made by mixing granules of different straight fertilizers to achieve a desired nutrient composition.

Sheahan and Barrett (2017) review Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) data to characterize input use among households cultivating at least one agricultural plot in the primary growing season in Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda.<sup>5</sup> They find that approximately 35% of farm households use some amount of mineral fertilizer in the primary growing season. Variation in the use of fertilizers both across and within countries can also be seen using data from the Rural Livelihoods Information System (RuLIS),<sup>6</sup> which has constructed standardized variables across a range of household and farm surveys. Figure 1 presents mineral fertilizer use among crop-farming households for 12 countries in SSA (with data collected from 2011 or later). Statistics are presented separately for small farmers, also referred to as small-scale food producers, and larger household farms.<sup>7</sup> Small farmers have a lower incidence of fertilizer use in nearly all represented countries, with the gap between the rate of use among small and larger household farms as large as 28% (Burkina Faso and Ethiopia).

Variation in use of mineral fertilizer across and within countries is compounded by variation in quantity of fertilizer applied. Sheahan and Barrett (2017) in their review of LSMS-ISA countries also document that the average application of mineral fertilizer per unit of cultivated area across the six countries is 57 kilograms per hectare (26 kilograms per hectare in nutrients) but emphasize considerable variation across countries; per hectare applications are highest in Malawi, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. Average application rates conditional on use range from 1.2 kg per hectare to 146 kg per hectare in Malawi, across all households irrespective of fertilizer application. Among households using mineral fertilizers in the LSMS-ISA countries, the average application rate was 123 kg/ha (58 kg/ha of nutrients). Average application rates among households using mineral fertilizers varies substantially by country, with 81 kg/ha on average in Ethiopia, 189 kg/ha in Malawi, 26 kg/ha in Niger, 310 kg/ha

> 5 Findings are for the primary agricultural season though there are typically two agricultural seasons per year, with the secondary season generally in the drier stretch of months. For more information on the LSMS-ISA, visit: <u>https://www.worldbank.org/lsms</u>

> 6 For more information on RuLIS, visit: https://www.fao.org/in-action/rural-livelihoods-dataset-rulis/en

> 7 RuLIS defines small-scale food producers in accordance with the definition put forth by FAO for the monitoring of SDG 2.3, which is summarized as “producers who: [i] operate an amount of land falling in the first two quintiles (the bottom 40 percent) of the cumulative distribution of land size at national level (measured in hectares); and [ii] operate a number of livestock falling in the first two quintiles (the bottom 40 percent) of the cumulative distribution of the number of livestock per production unit at national level (measured in Tropical Livestock Units – TLUs); and [iii] obtain an annual economic revenue from agricultural activities falling in the first two quintiles (the bottom 40 percent) of the cumulative distribution of economic revenues from agricultural activities per production unit at national level (measured in Purchasing Power Parity Dollars) (FAO, 2018; p.3).” The year of data collection for each country in Figure 1 is as follows: Burkina Faso (2014), Cameroon (2014), Ethiopia (2016), Ghana (2013), Malawi (2017), Mali (2017), Niger (2014), Nigeria (2019), Rwanda (2014), Sierra Leone (2011), Tanzania (2015), Uganda (2016).

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