Under a lonely grove of trees in a field filled with bushes of bitter yellow eggplant ¡ª a Senegalese specialty ¡ª farmer Fallou Faye reaches into a sack and presents a crumbling brown material, an unlikely hero in a geopolitical crisis affecting farmers and ordinary people across the globe.

¡°Before, a sack of fertilizer cost 7,000 francs,¡± says Faye in Mboro, part of a lush vegetable growing region in eastern Senegal, as a braying donkey protests at the midday heat. ¡°Now it costs 35,000 ($58; ?8,000).¡±

Far from Ukraine, West African farmers like Faye are feeling the cascading effects of war there.