Reflections from the CEO
Part 1 – Foundations for Success
IFDC was founded in 1974 to boost fertilizer production and use in the tropics. The Green
Revolution, though massively effective in Pakistan and India, has been slow to impact subSaharan Africa. Our mission and structure aimed to develop fertilizer products suited to match
the particular soil and climatic conditions of the tropics.
While fertilizer was the fuel for agricultural transformation, including in the developing world,
in the 1970s these countries only consumed 26 percent of total usage globally. For yields to
increase, these areas needed to use more
fertilizer. The challenge was greater than
simply handing over tons of fertilizer; the
tropical soils and crops needed supplies
specifically designed for them. The initial
focus was to improve the use efficiency of
nitrogen fertilizers and develop affordable
phosphate fertilizers, such as mined
phosphate rock that could b