Luanda — African Heads of State will meet in June this year in Senegal to analyse issues related to soils and access to fertilizers, the commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union (AU) Josefa Sacko has told ANGOP.

The commissioner said that the Summit of Heads of States is expected to discuss the way the soils are used in agriculture in Africa as well as the supply and sale of fertilizers to peasants at affordable prices.

Josefa Sacko regretted the excessive use of the soils without being treated. "We are using the soil a lot, but we are not taking care of its health", said the interviewee, who completes, in 2025, her second four-year term as Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the AU.

In her interview, during which she also spoke of the effort to alleviate hunger in Africa by the end of the first half of this year, the official said that the continent acquires a large part of its fertilizers from Russia, a country at war with Ukraine since February 2022.

Josefa Sacko said that Africa currently uses an average of 18 kilograms of fertilizers per hectare, but, in 2006, in Abuja (Nigeria), at an extraordinary summit of the AU, called 'Abuja 1', the African Heads of State decided to reach up to 50 per hectare, "unfortunately without success".

"Abuja 1 has the Abuja Declaration, which predicted that by 2030 we could increase the use of fertilizers to 50 kilograms per hectare.