未来五年，全球人口将至少增加 4 亿。商品和能源价格也可能继续呈螺旋上升趋势。因此，需要提高土地、农业投入、水和劳动力的使用效率和有效性作为补偿。从长远来看，提高效率和效力将变得更加重要。
In 1597 Sir Francis Bacon wrote, “Knowledge is power.” As more of the world’s population has access to information, Bacon’s maxim increases in relevance. Improving farmers’ knowledge increases their ability to control their economic conditions. The International Fertilizer and Development Center (IFDC) is committed to improving the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers by further spreading information and technology.
例如，培训是农业技术转让和能力发展的最有效手段。 IFDC 开展三种类型的培训：国际培训和研讨会计划；应参与农业生产力活动的其他组织要求的专门计划；及其实地项目中的计划（使用现场实地培训、示范地块、农民实地日、培训师培训等）。
Training in the technical use of agricultural inputs and agribusiness skills builds farmers’ capacity. In 2009-10 IFDC and its partners trained more than 1 million farmers. IFDC makes a special effort to reach women, who often do not have the opportunity for training in agricultural technologies, even though they often are critical to the success of smallholder farming. The number of women enrolled in training programs more than tripled last year compared to 2009, increasing to 325,450 — more than 32 percent of the total farmers trained.
在整个非洲，IFDC 正在通过培训价值链促进结构的 2,000 多名代表来加速价值链的发展。他们接受了诸如综合土壤肥力管理、库存信贷/仓库收据系统、作物盈利能力、信贷准入、收获后战略和合作/组织管理等主题的培训。
此外，还对近70个协会和合作社，共计30,000名成员进行了合作社的建立、管理和规则方面的培训。此外，还为 1,000 多名农产品经销商（约 25% 为女性）提供了培训，为改善投入品市场发展创造了条件。
• Chart: Fertilizer Prices
尽管全球范围内都可以获得有关农业投入的信息，但撒哈拉以南非洲的小农和农产品经销商仍然无法获得这些信息。 2010 年 3 月，IFDC 推出了 www.africaferter.org，这是一个交流肥料、土壤肥力和非洲面临的关键农业问题信息的全球论坛。该门户网站提供交互式地图、大量可下载的出版物、市场信息和统计数据中心以及非洲化肥生产商和贸易商名录。
Improving farmers’ access to agricultural inputs and market information was recommended in the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for an African Green Revolution, written at the Africa Fertilizer Summit in 2006. Fertilizer use in Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest in the world — averaging only 8.0 kilograms per hectare annually. Even more startling, African farmers must pay two to four times the average world market price for fertilizers.
AfricaFertilizer.org 通过提供有关非洲化肥和土壤肥力问题的独特信息和数据组合，为增加非洲大陆的化肥使用做出了贡献。它通过从该行业的区域、国家和国际参与者那里采购、汇总、过滤和共享肥料信息来做到这一点。信息来源包括粮农组织、国际化肥工业协会以及国家农业部、统计局和地方农业投入品贸易协会。
The free, public information available on the website serves several major international and regional bodies and initiatives. These include the African Union, New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency, the Economic Community of West African States, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. It also feeds many specialized market information systems (MIS) such as the Regional Agricultural Input Market Information and Transparency System (AMITSA) in eastern Africa (www.amitsa.org), local and regional agro-dealer associations and numerous market development projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
AfricaFertilizer.org also engages small, local fertilizer dealers and agricultural extension workers who are the “last mile” link with smallholder farmers. There is an ongoing demand from agro-dealers for information on international fertilizer prices and for contact information of producers or importers that can supply the dealers with quality fertilizers at a fair price.
While Internet access is problematic in some areas of the continent, access will continue to improve, and the Internet will grow in importance across Africa in coming years. Currently, more than 60 percent of the continent’s population has mobile telephone coverage. Therefore, IFDC and various partners have worked to establish MIS platforms to post and receive real-time information on commodity and crop prices via text messages on cell phones. Farmers, agro-dealers, traders and others use these systems in various nations across Africa, stimulating business and commerce. This trend is particularly useful in marketing perishable crops. Improved access to price information reduces marketing costs and increases farm-gate prices, increasing productive efficiency. Mobile telephone coverage will grow over the next five years, and as fourth and even fifth generation technology use expands, cellular telephones will be even more useful in Africa.
In 2008, the late Dr. Norman Borlaug — 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and father of the Green Revolution — wrote to me, “The work of the Green Revolution is not yet finished and I believe it will take a new round of technological advancement, political commitment, commercial development and a lot of hard work to complete the job.”
He provided a road map for extending the Green Revolution. “We need to develop new products that will deliver just the nutrients that the growing plants require and to diminish environmental externalities. We need to invest in this sort of advanced fertilizer research and we need to coordinate it with advanced plant genetic research so that we can achieve synergy between more efficient use of available nutrients by plants and more efficient delivery of nutrients by fertilizer products. And we need to develop systems that can make these products cheaper and more accessible to farmers. We need to cut the cost of food production so that developing country farmers can produce affordable food to feed their growing urban populations.”
IFDC accepted Dr. Borlaug’s challenge and, in 2010, created the Virtual Fertilizer Research Center (VFRC), a global research initiative focused on the creation of the next generation of fertilizers and production technologies. New and improved fertilizers are critical to help feed the world’s growing population and ultimately provide food security, while protecting the environment and ensuring the sustainable use of Earth’s non-renewable resources. The IFDC Board of Directors believes the VFRC is the most rapid and economical way to tap the world’s intellectual capacity to generate this critically needed fertilizer research.
VFRC 将与大学、公共和私人研究实验室以及全球肥料和农业综合企业合作。它将汇集最优秀的科学、商业和政府人才，创建一个研究系统，生产更有营养的食物，减少资源浪费，减少对环境的影响。
与 NFDC 在阿拉巴马州 Muscle Shoals 的一个校园内开展的工作不同，VFRC 将以虚拟方式将研究人员联系在一起。借助互联网和其他通信技术，全世界的科学家可以在创新的基础和应用研究方面进行合作。虚拟协作还将允许快速跟踪这项紧急工作。
The VFRC has developed a “Proof of Concept” for the need and role of the Center. It is conducting further review and supplementary laboratory testing before launching a coordinated long-term research program. The VFRC will focus where the need for increasing efficiency is greatest: nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers. Later, work on micronutrients, including collaboration with plant breeders to ensure effective uptake, will be launched.
VFRC 顾问委员会强调考虑新的非传统范式和真正创新的方法来提高化肥生产/使用的效率。所有合作伙伴将与捐助者协商制定研究议程。具体的研究将有明确的目标和时间表，一些项目可能会通过竞争性资助来授予。这种方法将最大限度地发挥协同作用的好处和研究的整体影响。通过密切协调，影响和效率将进一步提高，从而最大限度地减少冗余。
VFRC 将指导和协调一项长期的国际化肥研究计划，强调增加营养作物的产量、环境保护和改善发展中国家农户的生活。
IFDC’s mission is to increase sustainable agricultural productivity through the development and transfer of effective and environmentally sound plant nutrient technology and agricultural marketing expertise. Its staff has worked with millions of smallholder farmers around the world to improve their agricultural productivity and build their economic self-sufficiency. In 2011, IFDC has rededicated itself to programs and projects that will assist additional smallholder farmers increase their agricultural productivity, reduce hunger and poverty, help build strong and effective agricultural value chains and improve the environment.