Rabat – Moroccan Phosphate and fertilizer giant OCP Group participated today in the EU-Africa Business Summit, to discuss the importance of agriculture and agribusiness in rural development.
The EU-Africa Business Summit is an event organized by European Business to promote the voices of enterprises in Europe and Africa.
The event was held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Marrakech, with some speakers joining the debate in-person and others participating via zoom.
Representing OCP was the group’s CEO advisor, Iliass El Fali, who spoke on the topic along with other panelists, including the former EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, the Director of the Agriculture Department in the African Union Commission, Godfrey Baghiigwa, and Samira Rafaela, a member of the European Parliament.
Most panelists argued that African agriculture and agribusiness is in dire need of public policies to attract investments and to implement climate smart policies.
El Fali affirmed that OCP is determined to support agriculture in the most efficient way possible, by creating a more sustainable agriculture with the preservation of soil health, water management, carbon capture, and the restoration of biodiversity.
The OCP official also spoke of the group’s efforts to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, arguing that this can in turn stimulate the agricultural sector while simultaneously reducing poverty.
Read also: Morocco’s OCP Declared World’s 4th Most Sustainability-Minded Food Business
“OCP dedicates one million ton of plant fertilizer per year to Africa. This allows us to encourage partners to invest in order to achieve supply chain efficiency and be able to provide phosphate fertilizers at the lowest cost,” said El Fali.
“Africa is part of the solution, and not part of the problem when it comes to global food security,” he added.
A huge 65 percent of global unexploited arable lands are in the African continent, and the agricultural yields in Africa are three to four times lower than the benchmarks.
OCP Group is serving both the African green revolution and the European agricultural transition with its investments in innovative actions and targeted approaches, El Fali argued.
“We are very excited to support new emerging models in Africa,” he asserted.
In partnership with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University of Benguerir (UM6P), OCP Group is currently working on the production of fortified fertilizer and orphan crops, which play a vital role in food security and the situation of small-scale farmers.
The Moroccan fertilizer giant is considered by the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) to be one of the few companies leading the world towards realizing a sustainable food system.
As Morocco boasts a significant portion of global phosphorus reserves, the company feels the “responsibility to be the phosphorus custodian globally,” the OCP official stressed.
