By Christopher Burke
As the 2030 deadline for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approaches, a glaring omission in the global strategy is increasingly impossible to ignore. There is an SDG for Zero Hunger (Goal 2) and Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12), however the building blocks of the earth, the minerals required to feed a rapidly growing planet, remain relegated to the footnotes of international policy.
To achieve the next version of the global goals, the Post-2030 Agenda, there is a critical need to stop treating mining and agriculture as separate silos. The application of fertilizer across Sub-Saharan Africa in 2022 averaged roughly 18.2 kg/ha with Uganda as low as 3.3 kg/ha while the world average sat at 134.2 kg/ha according to the World Bank. This gap is becoming even more urgent as fertilizer markets tighten. FAO warned in March 2026 that global fertilizer prices could average 15 to 20 percent higher in the first half of 2026 while the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) reported rising prices for Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), Monoammonium Phosphate (MAP) and potash just as many African countries enter peak planting periods. Food sovereignty will depend in part on secure access to potash, phosphate and the industrial inputs required to produce fertilizer at scale. There is an urgent need for a standalone Mineral Governance pillar that empowers the private sector to transform raw stones into the breadbaskets of tomorrow.
Beneficiation Breakthrough
Africa’s mineral story historically involves extraction. Raw phosphate is dug up in Togo or Morocco, shipped to Europe and then bought back as expensive, finished fertilizer. This paradox is finally being challenged by private sector titans.
The Dangote Group signed a landmark $2.5 billion agreement with the Ethiopian government in August 2025 to build one of the world’s largest fertilizer complexes. Utilizing Ethiopia’s natural gas to produce 3 million tonnes of urea annually, the project is not only an industrial feat, but a step toward fertilizer sovereignty. Formal negotiations at the UN for the post-2030 framework scheduled to commence September 2027 could provide the de-risking mechanisms to replicate this model across Africa.
ESG: The New License to Operate
Africa’s push to turn mineral resources into domestic fertilizer production is increasingly being governed by a new set of rules based on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles. No longer just a corporate buzzword, ESG has become the operating system for sustainable mining. Recent mining sector reports indicate sustainability and governance are now central to how mining projects secure approvals, funding and long-term investor confidence.
Embedding ESG in the heart of the post-2030 minerals goal will ensure that fertilizer production does not come at the cost of the environment. Governance standards represented by the ‘G’ in ESG provide the transparency needed to prevent the resource curse while the ‘S’ that stands for social ensures that local communities are not just neighbours to mines, but shareholders in the agricultural bounty they produce. In short, ESG has the potential to turn a mining project into a community development engine.
Double Duty Infrastructure
Logistics is a primary barrier to fertilizer uptake. It can be cheaper to ship fertilizer from Norway to an African port than to move it 500km inland. The private sector is already providing the solution through shared-use infrastructure.
The Africa Finance Corporation’s 2026 Compendium of Strategic Minerals argues Africa’s US$29.5 trillion in mineral wealth can only be unlocked by linking mines to functional ecosystems. When a mining company builds a railway for copper or lithium, the same rail should be able to carry fertilizer on the return leg. Mandating multi-purpose corridors in the next version of the SDGs could lower fertilizer prices for smallholder farmers by cutting transport and logistics costs that represent 30 to 60 percent of farm-gate prices across Africa.
Rise of Agro-Minerals
While the world focuses on critical minerals such as lithium for EVs, the World Bank’s 2025 Mineral Resources of Africa report identifies 1,888 significant deposits. Many of these are agro-minerals such as limestone and rock phosphate.
Incorporating these into the 2031–2045 global goals would incentivize the private sector to invest in micro-mining. Instead of relying on generic nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) imports, local companies can map and mine local limestone to treat soil acidity, making existing fertilizer significantly more effective. Such precision mining for precision agriculture is strongly supported by the African Green Minerals Strategy (AGMS) adopted by the AU in 2025.
Sustainability: The Carbon-Soil Nexus
Critics often view mining and sustainability as opposites. The private sector is proving that mineral application is a prerequisite for climate action. Healthy, mineral-rich soil is one of the world’s most effective carbon sinks.
Morocco’s OCP Group is currently executing a US$13 billion Green Investment Strategy targeting full carbon neutrality by 2040. OCP says its farmer-centred programmes, including customized and science-based fertilizer approaches, have delivered early results of up to 23 percent yield gains and up to 1.4 tons of carbon sequestered per hectare. If the next version of the SDGs links mineral governance to carbon markets or carbon finance, the private sector will have a stronger incentive to subsidize fertilizer for poor farmers in exchange for the carbon their soils can capture.
Call for Mineral Intelligence
African leaders endorsed the Nairobi Declaration on Fertilizer and Soil Health in May 2024, pledging to enhance agricultural productivity by improving soil health across Africa.
The global community led by mineral superpowers including the European Union and Australia should explore ways to ensure the “Post-2030 Agenda” moves beyond the vague “Responsible Consumption” of SDG 12. A framework that treats minerals as a strategic asset for human survival, governed by transparent ESG benchmarks is urgently required.
The private sector is ready to build the plants, map the deposits and lay the infrastructure. The gap is not capacity, but recognition. Minerals have still not been fully acknowledged as a foundation of food security, climate resilience and human survival.
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