Moroccan Fertilizers: Africa’s Golden Ticket to Food Security (2/4)

Ticking food security off of the list of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2023 has become an even bigger challenge under the current global crisis, brought on by the pandemic and exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 report, one in five people in Africa, the equivalent of 20.2% of the population, was facing hunger in 2021. Furthermore, the same report revealed that moderate or severe food insecurity increased the most in the African continent in the last year.

Having suffered the repercussions of a food crisis provoked by external factors, Africa has no choice left but to reduce its dependency on the global market for commodities essential to its survival. Indeed, Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, stated that “there is absolutely no reason why Africa is a net food-importing region, spending over $35 billion importing food. Africa must feed itself – and Africa must become a global powerhouse in food and agriculture.” For this purpose, Africa is looking into agricultural innovation to up its production capacity and provide its population with first-rate products. Seeing as the average application of fertilizer per hectare of cultivated land in Sub-Saharan Africa is that of 17kg of fertilizer nutrients, lagging far behind the global average of 135 kg, according to the African Bank of Development, Africa may not need to look for solutions anywhere further than Morocco, home to the largest phosphate reserves in the world.  

Dubbed as the Gatekeeper of the World’s Food Supply, Morocco’s fertilizer industry not only holds the key to ending food insecurity and malnutrition in the African continent, but is also opening doors of opportunities for African states to reach this goal. Indeed, OCP Africa, founded in 2016, represents the Kingdom’s willingness and readiness to transform Africa’s agricultural yields, by establishing joint-ventures partnerships to produce fertilizers locally and providing technical assistance and expertise to African farmers and scientists. OCP Africa’s mission is not only aligned with the Royal vision, resting on the Triple A and S initiatives to ensure food security in Africa, but also the Abuja Declaration put in place by the African Union in 2006, calling for an “African Green Revolution.”

OCP Africa: Know-How Sharing and Customized Fertilizers

Today, OCP Africa has 12 representative offices and subsidiaries in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroun, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Zambia. From 2016 to 2021, OCP Africa has signed several agreements with some of these countries, we cite: Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Guinea. Among the initiatives and programs launched by OCP Africa to revolutionize the agricultural sector in a continent that has 65% of the world’s arable lands, we find noteworthy the mention of the Agribooster program and OCP School Lab.

OCP Africa’s report presents Agribooster as “an inclusive development model designed to provide farmers with the best conditions for increasing their yields and increasing productivity by having access to a comprehensive package of products and services while strengthening market links.” More specifically, this program allows farmers to have access to “quality products and services through the provision of inputs (fertilizers, plant protection products, hybrid seeds), training sessions around best practices of reasoned fertilization, access to potential buyers in the market, support, access to financial services (including credit loans).” The impact of this program is significant, having reached 630 000 farmers in four countries (Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Ghana) and resulted in more than 30% of average yield increase. 

OCP School Lab is a traveling school that “offers demonstrations and educational training sessions for raising awareness about agricultural practices in accordance with the predominant culture of the regions in which they are located.” Even more astounding is the mobile laboratory the OCP School Lab is equipped with, allowing “to address more technical aspects such as soil nutrient needs and fertilizer recommendations tailored to local soils and crops.” This initiative, implemented in 9 countries (Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Togo), trained more than 420 000 African farmers. OCP School Lab is particularly important since it allows for the customization of fertilizers to respond better to the needs of the soils. The OCP Group Integrated 2021 report summarizes the process of customization in four steps: mapping the soil, developing the formula, and teaching sustainable methods. Up to date, 30,000,000 hectares of soils have been mapped in Africa, with 1 million farmers working with OCP for bespoke fertilizers by 2022, according to the same source. This customization is built on the production of NPK blends that can be adjusted to better fit the needs of different crops, depending on the soil and the plants. To date, Morocco’s OCP is the only fertilizer company in the world that engages in the customization of fertilizer’s process. The creation of OCP Nutricrops, by merging Jorf Fertilizers Company I, Jorf Fertilizers Company II, and Jorf Fertilizers Company IV, “will enable the creation of a leading company in the fertilizer sector as well as customized fertilizer solutions, with more flexibility and options in terms of financing, especially in terms of opening capital.” For example, the maps below showcase the need for precision agriculture to accompany plants’ growth, despite having the same soil. 

Input Products Factories and Fertilizer Plants in Africa: Nigeria, Ghana, and Ethiopia 

Morocco, represented by OCP Africa, has signed several partnerships over the years in the African continent to ensure their supply with fertilizers. The most notable partnership is that with Nigeria seeing as Morocco supplies 90% of its annual demand for fertilizers and Nigeria has Africa’s largest natural gas reserves, essential to the production of fertilizers. Under a win-win framework, OCP Africa and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) have agreed on the construction of a 1.4 billion USD ammonia and fertilizer plant, operational by 2023. According to Reuters, this factory will export ammonia to Jorf Lasfar complex to facilitate fertilizer production, especially vital regarding its soaring prices on the global market, in return it will supply Nigeria with phosphoric acid to locally produce fertilizers. Its annual production capacity is that of 750.000 tonnes of ammonia and 1 million tonnes of fertilizers. Currently, OCP Africa states that it has contributed to the renovation of 13 blending units and packaging for fertilizers and installation by private operators of more than 14 new factories in Nigeria. Moreover, 3 blending units are under construction in Kaduna, Ogun and Sokoto, with a total production capacity of 500.000 tons of fertilizers per year, according to the same source. 

Much like Nigeria, Ghana, more specifically Jomoro, will be home to an industrial fertilizer complex capitalizing on the complementarity of Ghana’s natural gas and Morocco’s phosphate. The investment is expected to be of 1.3 billion USD with a production capacity of 1 million ton per year, says Reuters. Dr. Francis Tetteh, Head of Analysis and Soil Analysis Department in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Ghana, states that “This capacity-building project has been beneficial, and it came at the right time because Ghana has been trying to solve this problem for a long time, looking for funding and support before OCP came in. We are thankful for OCP. We hope that the collaboration between OCP and MOFA, CSIR and Ghana will continue to grow from strength to strength.’’ Another fertilizer production complex is underway in Ethiopia with an investment of 2.4 billion USD, expected to be operational by 2023. The Dire Dawa industrial platform will have a production capacity of 2.5 million tons of fertilizers per year in its first phase, and a 50% increase in its second phase by 2025. Similarly, this industrial complex will merge Moroccan phosphate and Ethiopian potash and gas. 

Other partnerships and agreements have been concluded with African sister nations, latest among which is with Kenya, who will be receiving the first batches of fertilizers in the upcoming days, according to El Mokhtar Ghambou, Morocco’s former Ambassador to Kenya.

Commercial gain is on the horizon for Morocco’s fertilizer industry in Africa, even more consequential is the geopolitical influence Rabat will hold if, or rather when, it becomes Africa’s food security guarantor.