Adulteration and counterfeiting in mineral fertilizer is rare. The IFDC report argues, “the perception that fake or adulterated fertilizers in West African markets is a dominant quality concern is not supported by the findings of this study.” Of the 2,037 samples IFDC collected in West Africa, only seven were found to contain no materials with fertilizer properties and were classified by the IFDC researchers as adulterated and misbranded.<sup>19, 20</sup> These seven samples were all of the same type and location of origin: a superphosphate fertilizer collected from Nigeria. IFDC analyses conducted in Uganda (2018a) and Kenya (2018b) similarly found no evidence of fillers or foreign materials suggesting adulteration.

# **Visually Observed Quality: Evidence**

Michelson et al. (2021) find a high incidence of fertilizer with degradation in observable physical characteristics including the presence of powdering (in which granules lose their structural integrity), caking (in which the fertilizer forms a hard aggregate), and impurities. More than 30% of fertilizer sampled in Morogoro region, Tanzania, had evidence of at least one of these issues. IFDC reports also document that these visually observed quality characteristics are commonly degraded: 15% of bags sampled in Uganda, 90% of urea samples in Senegal, and 59% of samples of urea from Togo and Côte d’Ivoire exhibited medium or high levels of caking. Fifty percent of the samples from West Africa were assessed by IFDC to have fine particles, with granular integrity moderately or significantly compromised. Asante et al. (2021) find that 13% of NPK samples from Ghana have some degree of modest granule segregation and 19% have some caking.

IFDC reports (Sanabria et al. 2013; 2018a; 2018b) document that fertilizer bags are often underweight.<sup>21</sup> For example, 41% of bags in Nigeria, 28% in Côte d’Ivoire, 13% in Senegal, 12% in Ghana, 7% in Togo, and 10% in Uganda were underweight. Results in Kenya showed that the frequency of underweight bags increases as the bag size decreases, with 38% of sampled 10kg bags underweight, 28% of 25-kg bags, and 19% of 50-kg bags. IFDC researchers caution that they are unable to ascertain whether they are underweight due to deliberate tampering or due to poor process control during bagging or re-bagging.

19 The classification of these samples as adulterated was based on careful assessment. The samples were initially tested in West Africa, then sent to the IFDC laboratory in Alabama, United States. After initial analyses indicated that the samples contained no phosphorous, the researchers used X-ray mineralogical methods to characterize the spectrum of each sample.

20 The authors of the 2013 IFDC report write (p. xiv): “Trained inspectors reported evidence of adulteration in 31 of 134 (23 percent) samples collected in Cote d’Ivoire but only 14 of 414 (3.4 percent) samples from Nigeria. However, the only cases of completely proven adulteration are the seven samples of SSP from Nigeria that were found to have no P2O5 content or any of the minerals that carry P in phosphate rock. While high percentages of nutrient deficient samples in some NPK blends found in some countries could be interpreted as fraud during manufacturing or along the distribution chain, this is not substantiated by findings of this study; the lack of or poor control of blending procedures and use of inadequate blending equipment are also possible explanations.

> 21 As discussed, tolerance limits for weight shortages are 1% of the labeled weight based on international standards. A 50-kg bag with a shortage greater than 0.5kg is considered out of compliance, for example.

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