The Moroccan Cherifian Office of Phosphates (OCP) continues to expand on the African continent, where it intends to contribute to the development and transformation of agriculture.
A delegation of the group’s officials met this Friday, June 17, in Niamey, the Prime Minister of Niger Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou.
The delegation, led by Mohamed Hettiti, Vice President West Africa, and Mohamed Benzekri, Director of West Africa, within the OCP Group, did not make a statement to the press at the end of this meeting, according to the Niger News Agency (ANP).
According to the same source, the Moroccan group’s officials and the Nigerien Prime Minister discussed “a fertilizer plant project” in Niger.
At the end of this meeting, the OCP delegation did not make any statement to the press.
This meeting comes at a time when Niger wants to boost its agricultural production and ensure its food security, in a global context marked by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which has shown the negative effects of the dependence of African countries on imports of certain basic cereals and oilseeds.
However, Niger’s agricultural production is severely handicapped by the lack of fertilizer supplies. Niger is one of the countries that uses the lowest amount of fertilizer per hectare in the world, with only 3 kilos per hectare on average, mainly because of fertilizer supply problems.
In 2020, authorities initiated a reform of the fertilizer sector to make it available and accessible to agricultural producers. But the country’s fertilizer imports remain low.
In 2020 and 2021, fertilizer imports amounted to 31,000 and 91,000 tons respectively, quantities far from sufficient to meet the sector’s demand.
The establishment of a fertilizer production unit could greatly increase supply, reduce the costs of this input and significantly increase the country’s agricultural production.
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