Substantially more plant nutrients will be required in future, with estimates indicating that by 2030 the current demand for fertiliser will grow from 10 kg/ha to 50 kg/ha, Fertiliser Association of Southern Africa (Fertasa) noted in a release on Monday.

“The questions are how much food must be produced by that time to meet the demand? How is it going to be produced? Do we have sufficient land and water? These are the crucial issues that need to be addressed,” Fertasa CEO Adam Mostert emphasised.

The association said feeding a global population of over nine-billion people by 2050 was “one of the most daunting challenges” facing the agriculture industry this century.

It was estimated that Africa's population would double by 2050, reaching 2.5-billion.

A 2011 report by the World Health Organisation, meanwhile, forecast that nearly 400 000 people died every year from starvation in Africa. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (UN), 239-million people in sub-Saharan Africa were undernourished.

“It is often said that Africa has the potential not only to feed its growing population but also to export food to the rest of the world. The reality is that this is not happening. Africa currently imports food valued at US$35-billion a year,” advised Fertasa.

In wiping out this backlog, the fertiliser industry faced the major challenge of “planning well ahead in good time”, said Mostert.

Therefore, the theme for Fertasa’s fifty-fifth yearly congress was ‘Food production for a growing population in Southern Africa’, which coincided with the UN’s 2015 International Year of the Soil.

The congress would take place on April 13, 14 and 15 at the Lord Charles Hotel, in the town of Somerset West, in the Western Cape.

Specialists from different branches of agriculture were expected to address the congress and included former Minister of Agriculture and acting President of Zambia Dr Guy Scott, University of Stellenbosch Department of Agricultural Economics chairperson and Agricultural Writers' Agriculturalist of the Year 2013 Professor Nick Vink and University of Pretoria food and agricultural policy director Professor Ferdi Meyer.