The project seeks to develop a soil fertility map to address the challenges of food security.
Rabat – Morocco’s OCP Foundation and the Ghanaian Ministry of Agriculture have launched a soil fertility project to address the challenges of food security and cultivated land preservation.
The OCP and the Ghanaian institution launched the fertility map development project on December 1 in Accra.
The project puts a central focus on capacity building for the ministry of food and agriculture staff (MoFA), providing laboratories with equipment, and developing a soil fertility map.
The project seeks to provide farmers in Ghana with soil analysis tools. The OCP Foundation seeks to improve local crop yields and strengthen the scientific and technical skills of beneficiaries through the project.
As part of the initiative, experts will analyze and map more than 100,000 hectares of soil in the pilot area, the Ashanti Region, Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) reported.
The OCP Foundation will also offer the MoFA staff the necessary equipment for its two specialized soil and fertilizer analysis laboratories, as well as a mobile soil analysis unit and pick-up trucks and motorcycles to reach the least accessible areas for soil sampling.
Training sessions will be offered as part of the project.
Experts from the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University will train more than 130 MoFA agronomists, engineers, laboratory technicians, and managers.
Last month, the OCP signed an agreement with the Spanish company Fertinagro Bitech and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.
The agreement aims to endow the university to fund professors who will train researchers.
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The training sessions will include soil fertility and crop fertilization, geographic information systems (GIS) applied to soil mapping and fertilizer quality control.
“Through this initiative, OCP Foundation remains committed to furthering the emergence of sustainable and resilient agriculture in Africa,” the foundation said.
The OCP Foundation is present in Africa with several initiatives, seeking to promote the creation of strategic decision-making tools for agricultural policies.
“To date, more than one million hectares of land have been mapped, more than 240 staff members have been trained, and 14 laboratories have been upgraded,” according to the OCP.
Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture, Ms. Imane Ouaadil, Moroccan Ambassador to Ghana, senior Ghanaian officials, and Ghanaian farmers associations, as well as representatives of the national private sector and the fertilizer industry, attended the inauguration ceremony, a statement from the OCP said.
