Fertilizer Use Per Hectare Across 53 African Countries, 1961–2023

From 1961 to 2023, this dataset contains 2,858 observations of fertilizer application rates per hectare across 53 African countries. It was repackaged by Electric Sheep Africa from the Our World in Data source. The data is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term trends in agricultural input intensity based on the 1961–2023 time series.
• Compare fertilizer usage patterns across different African nations based on the coverage of 53 countries.
• Model the relationship between fertilizer application and crop yield potential based on the per-hectare metric.

Strengths

• 2,858 observations provide a substantial time-series record.
• Covers a long temporal span of 63 years (1961–2023).
• Geographic scope includes 53 African countries.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Our World in Data

Collection Method

Repackaged by Electric Sheep Africa; original collection method is not specified.

Time Range

1961–2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-03 21:26:03; freshness should be verified.

Geography

53 African countries