West Africa’s agriculture ministers convened an extraordinary online meeting on Sunday, March 23, 2026, to address the rapidly escalating impact of soaring fertiliser prices on food security across the region, warning that the crisis poses a structural threat to farming systems just weeks before the main planting seasons begin.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission organised the meeting in cooperation with the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). The session brought together agriculture ministers from ECOWAS member states, regional bodies, and technical and financial partners.
Opening the meeting, ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture Kalilou Sylla described the situation facing the region as a state of emergency, pointing to what he called a “triple threat” confronting farmers: surging gas-linked input prices, acute foreign currency shortages hampering fertiliser imports, and soil degradation that diminishes the effectiveness of fertilisers even when farmers can access them. He noted that more than two-thirds of West Africa’s agricultural land has been depleted of nutrients. Drawing on lessons from past shocks, Sylla warned that fertiliser prices, which rose from around $256 to $941 per tonne between the COVID-19 pandemic period and the early months of the Ukraine war, could spike again if the region fails to act collectively and in advance.
The session was chaired by Sierra Leone’s Minister of Agriculture, Dr Henry Musa Kpaka, who urged member states to move beyond reliance on international markets correcting themselves. “As leaders responsible for our nations’ agricultural policies, the responsibility for mitigating the effects of the crisis rests squarely with us,” he said, stressing the need for unified and concrete regional action.
The meeting resulted in a proposed long and medium-term operational framework centred on two immediate measures: the signing of regional framework agreements to secure strategic fertiliser volumes and build up emergency reserves before prices climb further, and the deployment of liquidity swap lines through central banks to ease the foreign currency shortages blocking importers from procuring supplies.
Agriculture ministers from the member states present commended the Commission for acting swiftly and called for national strategies to be aligned with the broader regional response. The ECOWAS Commission said the meeting’s outcome reflects the bloc’s determination to protect food sovereignty across a region of approximately 300 million people ahead of the 2026 growing season.
