Zambian Farmers Turn to Homemade Bokashi Fertilizer as Iran War Drives Up Prices

Newlove's fields include shady fruit trees, long tomato vines draped over trellises, tidy rows of corn, pumpkins and a local leafy green called blackjack, and 11 varieties of lettuce. She began taking vegetables to workmates and soon was supplying a supermarket, she said. For many farmers, 2026 has been a challenging year. The Iran war dramatically halted international trade shipments, including fertilizers, and prices spiked globally. The effects were quickly felt in African countries, where smallholder farmers are often vulnerable to rapid changes in fertilizer costs. Newlove, however, did not feel the pinch. For years, she has fertilized her plants with bokashi.

Bokashi has roots in ancient Korean farming traditions and was popularized in Japan. According to Newlove, it is relatively easy to make and highly effective. "We could now have a potent fertilizer — organic — which is ready in weeks. For us that was amazing," she said. "It was a game changer, to be honest." Bokashi has become popular in Zambia, she said, and farmers now sell homemade bokashi compost at markets and swap tips on social media. The Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre offers bokashi training and often sends students to her farm to see it in action.

Rabecca Mwila of the Knowledge Platform for Organic Agriculture and Agroecology in Africa said Zambian farmers have been looking for alternatives—how to grow food but reduce costs. "Inputs such as bokashi have come in to provide a cushion for them," Mwila said. For home composters, bokashi is a method of fermenting food scraps in an anaerobic environment, with no oxygen allowed. Many farmers make a version outdoors. Ingredients are often easy to find on a farm: leaves or crop residues, animal dung, charcoal and ash from a fireplace. They add yeast and a source of sugar, such as molasses or bananas, to jump start fermentation. The mixture heats up as microbes break it down. After a couple of weeks of fermentation, the concoction is buried underground near Newlove's crops so it can break down completely.

Mwila said there is excitement from farmers because they have been able to testify that it is cheaper and their soil is rebuilding. They are able to see earthworms. As climate change makes rainfall less predictable and dry seasons longer, Mwila said farmers are increasingly interested in inexpensive, sustainable options. Many voice concerns about the longer-term impact of commercial fertilizers. "Because of the overuse of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides, the soil is completely depleted," Mwila said.

Zambia once imported nearly all of its fertilizer. After global prices tripled following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, finding alternatives became a matter of food security. In addition to bokashi, the Zambian government has promoted the growth of its domestic fertilizer industry. Last week, a Chinese-Zambian conglomerate announced its intention to build a $1.5 billion fertilizer plant in the country. Although global fertilizer prices largely dropped over the summer, including in Zambia, some fertilizers remain expensive in southern African countries, including Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa.

While the government subsidizes fertilizer, there isn't always enough to go around. Donald Zulu, a lecturer and researcher at Copperbelt University in northern Zambia, said that without subsidies a farmer will pay about $400 to buy enough fertilizer to grow 2.5 acres of corn. "It's quite expensive and out of reach for many smallholder farmers," Zulu said. Seeking an alternative, he started working with WeForest and local farmers to study how well bokashi worked on corn and cabbage in 2024. "The results were very encouraging," Zulu said. "Bokashi echoed the yields of mineral fertilizer." This suggested that small-scale farmers could use bokashi, which is cheaper, and grow a comparable amount of food. But to his surprise, the best-performing crops were planted with smaller amounts of both bokashi and mineral fertilizers. "That's where bokashi becomes key in terms of helping farmers to be food secure," he said.

For farmers like Newlove, bokashi is less about the cost and more about building a sustainable farming practice that preserves the land. "Even when you're making it, you don't need to wear a mask because it's not toxic. There's no harmful chemicals," Newlove said. "So it's all just like a labor of love."

Editor's Summary Bokashi, a homemade fermented compost with Korean and Japanese roots, is gaining ground among Zambian farmers as fertilizer prices remain a burden after the Iran war disrupted global shipments. Zambian researchers found bokashi produced yields comparable to mineral fertilizer and worked best when combined with smaller amounts of synthetic fertilizer. The practice offers a cheaper, soil-rebuilding option for smallholder farmers facing volatile input costs, though commercial fertilizers and domestic production remain part of the response.