OCP Africa, which is part of Morocco’s fertilizer giant OCP Group has launched OCP School Lab, a body that seeks to allow 30,000 farmers in Rwanda to be trained on “good agricultural practices” over a period of one year.
The lab campaign, targeting dozens of villages across 14 districts, aims to provide fertilizer recommendations on use and benefits of fertilizers to farmers.
Also read: Rwanda to launch program to bridge practical skills gap in aquaculture
This is part of an a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) OCP Africa signed in Kigali on Thursday last week with Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) and Rwanda Fertilizer Company (RFC) to promote the “agro-input use and increase market access for over 180,000 smallholder farmers in the agricultural value chain.
According to OCP Chief Mostapha Terrab, the company has been emphasizing the importance of fertilizers and their benefits for a healthy and productive soil and stressed that Africa has the potential to become the world’s farm.
“To maximize yields per acre, it is estimated that local farmers will need to increase their fertilizer application by around tenfold,” he said.
Terrab stressed that the use of fertilizers in a sustainable way will be crucial.
“Doing this in a sustainable way – without longer-term environmental damage – will be crucial. Not just for the continent, but the globe as well,” Terrab added.
Benefits of fertilizers
The partnership also seeks to pave the way for farmers by providing them with a roadmap on the use, access, and benefits of fertilizers. This aims to allow farmers benefits from production increase to meet their products demand.
Also read: French funded mechatronics program launched in Rwanda college
“Through the MoU, the farmers will benefit from improved practices and systemic approaches to agriculture that address all the challenges they face and be assisted to improve innovation and entrepreneurship in the agriculture value chain,” said OCP Africa in a statement.
OCP also emphasized the importance of the initiative, seeking to benefit 150,000 additional farmers through Farmer House, another program that evolved on empowering young leaders in rural areas as well as vulnerable communities of women farmers.
The empowerment project will go through facilitating access to quality agri-inputs, small machinery, capacity building services, as well as the boosting of local innovation.
Tackling farmers’ challenges
Commenting on the partnership, CEO of OCP Africa Mohammed Anouar Jamali stressed that the agreement is part of a joint effort seeking to tackle challenges farmers face to “ensure yield and income increase.”
Daniel Gies, the chief of party of the USAID-funded Hinga Wunguke activity also emphasized the importance of the partnership, stressing that this approach is part of the innovative initiatives that benefit smallholder farmers “to be able to participate in competitive markets and grow profitable.”
On the same day of the MoU agreement signing, USAID and CNFA, as well as the Rwandan Fertilizer Company, launched an OCP School Lab Project, which was kicked off in a partnership with Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture.
“Lead farmers from several districts attended the official launching in Murindi of OCP SCHOOL LAB to experience high technology for fertilizer recommendations based on soil, yield target and crop nutrition,” OCP Africa said.
During the launch, farmers met with professionals and experts in the field, who shared their know-how and expertise to allow farmers to improve their farming experience.
Also read: Young Rwandan lady develops app to enhance potato production
Since its creation in 2016, OCP Africa has stepped up efforts to help support farmers on the continent. The group’s school labels benefited 770,000 farmers in nine African countries including in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Tanzania.
