The three-year project (2020-2023) will support 430,000 smallholder farmers, including 104,000 women, in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana and facilitate their access to quality and affordable agricultural inputs, as well as provide training in good agricultural practices. This initiative became possible due to cooperation between the African Development Bank and OCP Africa, a subsidiary of the OCP Group. It is called the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) and will result in a $4 million partial trade credit guarantee that aims to reduce potential risks along the agricultural value chain and improve access to quality inputs, including fertilizers.  

Activities are expected to boost productivity and help increase rice and maize yields by 35% in Ghana and rice yields by 30% in Côte d'Ivoire. In light of these expected outcomes, OCP Africa and the AFFM will each contribute $2 million in trade credit guarantees.  

Lahcen Ennahli, OCP Africa’s Senior Vice President for West Africa, said: "The partnership with the African Development Bank will scale up and expand activities implemented under the Agribooster Initiative. We believe at OCP Africa that this initiative will serve as a model to further incentivize other private and development partners to enter into similar risk-sharing agreements that will have a positive multiplying effect on farmers, especially in the current context of COVID-19, which poses a serious threat to their welfare as well as to food security, inputs and agricultural know-how."  

"The African Development Bank is pleased to partner with OCP Africa to achieve the increased agricultural productivity objective of the Bank's Feed Africa Strategy. The project will contribute to the Bank's efforts to increase smallholder farmers' access to modern farming inputs to increase productivity and promote agriculture as a profitable and sustainable business in Africa," said Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture and Agro-industry at the African Development Bank.  

The project is in line with the national development programs of the two countries. It will support the implementation of the national rice strategy in Cote d'Ivoire, as well as the Planting for Food and Jobs program in Ghana.

Source from: Fertilizer Daily