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The development of African agriculture has become a priority for many agri-focused organizations and foundations seeking to contribute to boosting food security on the continent, which is home to 60% of the world’s remaining arable land.
Morocco’s fertilizer giant OCP has been among the top organizations emphasizing their commitment to contribute to the continent’s development through different initiatives tailored to tackle the most prevalent challenges hampering sustainable development goals to make Africa as self-sufficient as possible for food and natural resources.
The 2023 Oxford Business Group’s (OBG) Report, with a focus on African agriculture, has outlined some of OCP’s initiatives – including Agribooster, which was developed by the group’s OCP Africa subsidiary.
One of the initiatives highlighted in the report, developed in collaboration with OCP Group, is the Agribooster programme by OCP Africa.
The program, which was initially introduced in 2016 in Cote d’Ivoire, aimed at boosting food production in the African country while providing support for farmers in every aspect of the agricultural value chain.
Agribooster momentum
“The Agribooster programme operates with a farmer-centered market development model, aiming to equip agricultural workers with the necessary resources and training, ultimately leading to higher crop yields, and improved livelihoods,” the Oxford Business Report said.
It also acknowledged the benefits stemming from the initiative, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, where it helped mitigate the repercussions of the health crisis on Africa’s agriculture sector and to meet the continent’s pressing food needs.
Sharing data reflecting the initiative’s beneficial role, the report said that Agribooster’s initiatives during the pandemic reached over 350,000 smallholder farmers in different countries, notably Cote d’Ivoire, where OCP Africa partnered with the Emergency Rice Program to bolster food security and augment rice production in the country.
The success of the program enabled its expansion in five countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal, benefitting over 780,000 farmers by 2021.
The contribution of the program continued in 2022, reaching 222,000 farmers in that year alone.
This included its contribution to providing agricultural practices training to 30,000 smallholder farmers in Ghana.
Women-Focused Agribooster
Beyond its interest in helping smallholder farmers, OCP Africa also launched an Agribooster program that is specifically designed to empower women.
The Women in Agribooster (WIA) initiative came to life in 2020 and included 5,000 female farmers during its inaugural year.
The number of participants, however, more than doubled to reach 13,000 women in Ghana and Nigeria in 2021.
“The programme is designed to empower women farmers by enhancing their agricultural knowledge and providing tailored training,” the report explains.
The year 2022 marked the expansion of the program to include the registration and training of 25,000 women. It also contributed to an increase in women farmers’ yield from 1.9 to 4 tonnes per hectare.
The program also facilitates partnership between local startups, with the goal to assist female farmers to benefit from different features, including more modern harvesting machines.
“To further amplify the reach of WIA programme, OCP Africa implemented a Training of Trainers initiative in Ghana in 2022,” the report added, emphasizing that the program targeted 15 field officers selected from three women’s cooperatives to boost their capacity to serve farmers in their communities, as well as equipping them with essential business skills like data collection.
The fruitful ‘Al Moutmir’ initiative
Another significant initiative is the Al Moutmir project, which OCP introduced in 2018 seeking to prioritize promoting optimal agricultural, technical, and governance practices.
“The project invests in technical reinforcement programmes for women, enabling them to enhance farm productivity, financial and project management skills, and sales expertise,” the report quoted Nawfel Roudies, head of Al Moutmir Business Unit within Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, as saying..
Roudies also shared data on the beneficiaries of the program, detailing that 27,000 people benefited from Al Motumir.
This includes 1,000 women who collaborated with the program as well as 400 predominantly female cooperatives and 30 female retainers.
This collaboration aims to foster increased autonomy, business development, and empowerment.
OCP aspires to see the initiative promote the best agricultural practices while enabling farmers to improve their crops’ productivity without negative impact on natural resources. The program also provides customized solutions tailored to help meet farmers’, especially smallholder farmers, need for better productivity.