[Economics] Africa Fertilizer Financing Forum Calls For Future-Proof Agriculture

[The GodFather]

 

 

Casablanca - As Africa is facing growing agricultural threats, Morocco’s city of Casablanca is hosting the third edition of the Africa Fertilizer Financing Forum to explore escalating fertilizer costs and their implications on the continent’s food security.

The forum, taking place from October 11 to 13, is initiated by OCP Africa and the African Development Bank. It aims to promote fertilizer-use throughout the continent, establishing collaborations targeted at boosting agriculture output, and gaining access to funding as a key to success. It also intends to identify long-term strategies for improving the continent’s food sovereignty.

The high-level symposium brought together over 200 individuals from across the world. All attendants shared their concern about soaring fertilizer prices and their vast consequences in exacerbating food insecurity in Africa.

International senior executives and business leaders from around the world attended the event alongside government representatives and members of research institutes.

The first day of the event, October 11, saw a tour of Morocco’s state-of-the-art institute, the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Benguerir. 

On October 12, the event started with government keynotes in which highly regarded representatives from Morocco, Malawi, Angola, Ivory Coast, and Togo discussed their respective countries’ agricultural concerns.

Africa’s Resources Are Enough 

 

OCP Africa CEO Mohamed Anouar Jamali opened the forum’s second day with a statement regarding Africa’s major agricultural concerns. 

“Africa can be self-sufficient in food. We must act,” Jamali underlined. 

With the goal of successfully feeding one billion people, OCP Africa’s CEO announced the start of the organization’s second phase initiative to finance fertilizers in Africa. The initiative will feature four million tonnes of fertilizer and specifically fertilizer tailored to African soil for the benefit of over 40 million farmers in 35 African countries.

The financing program follows its first stage, which consisted of donations of, and rebates on 550,000 tonnes of fertilizer, which benefited four million farmers in 20 African countries, Jamali continued. 

For his part, Martin Fregen, director of the Agriculture and Agribusiness Department at the AfDB in Ivory Coast pointed out that 30 million farmers have benefited from the fertilizer financing mechanism initiated by the AfDB. He added that by the end of this year, $1.5 billion is set to be disbursed for the acquisition of these fertilizers. 

With the increase in the price of much-needed fertilizer and the fuel needed for logistics, the small farmer, who makes up the bulk of the agricultural sector across all African countries, is unable to fertilize his land, he continued.

“Why should we turn to Ukraine and Russia to feed our value chains, when the continent is rich and can feed its po[CENSORED]tion?” Fregen questioned. 

Malawi’s Minister of Agriculture Lobin C.Lowe talked about the agricultural budget, food insecurity (continental dependence on food from Russia and Ukraine), and the effects of COVID-19 on all domains, notably on agriculture. 

The minister also emphasized the need to improve irrigation in Malawi and Africa as a whole.

Manuel Bartolomeu de Cunha Joao, Angola’s secretary of state for agriculture and livestock, pointed to the fertilizer crisis, saying that “most of the African countries live this reality.”

Thus, he emphasized that Angola is hoping for support from the AfDB and OCP Africa, especially since it has just launched a large-scale cereal mass production program for the region, along with a short and medium-term program to boost livestock numbers.

Although “80% of the farming po[CENSORED]tion lacks financial resources,” the Angolan senior representative noted that “Africa does not need to look elsewhere, we have everything.” He added that “we are here to show OCP that we are ready.”

Read also: OCP Africa, African Development Bank to Host Africa Fertilizer Financing Forum

Martine Aboin, head of the Fertilizer Service and the representative of Ivory Coast’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development expressed her country’s interest in local sources of fertilizer in order to guarantee food stability in Africa. 

According to the Ivory Coast’s representative, the price of a 50 kg bag of fertilizer in one year has doubled, rising from 15,000 CFA francs to 30,000 CFA francs. 

While some countries suffer from a lack of access to these inputs, due to their high cost or domestic scarcity, others such as Togo, have put in place measures to facilitate supply, Aboin underlined.

In a statement to Morocco World News, Aboin said that “today the policy of Ivory Coast [... is to be] in food security,” which is why the country is participating in this forum. 

“Ivory Coast is an agricultural country whose agriculture is based on caffeine and cocoa [...] which disfavors the cultivation of crops that are sources of food security.

 

 

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2022/10/351808/africa-fertilizer-financing-forum-calls-for-future-proof-agriculture