A Moroccan company, Office Chérifien des Phosphates, OCP-Group, the largest and world’s first exporters of phosphate based products is collaborating with the Bauchi State Government to develop modern agriculture in the state.

At a strategy meeting held between the Bauchi State Government delegation headed by Governor Mohammed Abubakar and the management of the OCP Group led by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Karim Lotfi Senhadji, the company agreed to invest in a brand new world-class standard fertilizer company that will be large enough to cater for the needs of the entire northern region. It also promised to upgrade the existing Bauchi Fertilizer Company.

To kick-start the alliance, OCP has approved the commencement of OCP school lab project in the state. The project includes, mobile school that enters remote farming communities to offer training to farmers; mobile laboratory that analyses soil samples of the entire state and recommend the right combination of fertilizers for the farmers. This is called precision agriculture. The project will be launched in April and 10,000 farmers will be targeted. Also, inclusive is a special project called Agri-booster, where another group of 10,000 farmers will benefit from direct funding. In this area maize will be the priority commodity as suggested by the Governor.

Meanwhile, Governor Abubakar and a team from the state Ministry of Agriculture are currently in the Kingdom of Morocco to attend the programme of OCP-Africa in Casablanca as a boost to the bilateral agreement between the state government and the Kingdom of Morocco.

The Governor, in company of the Nigerian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco, Amb Abubakar Baba paid a visit to one of OCP’s Chemical complexes, Jorf Lasfar Chemical Complex, which is the largest in the world. The Executive Director, Industry Operations took the governor and his entourage round the 504.00 HA complex. The Jorf Lasfar Industrial Complex have the capacity to supply Phosphate to the whole world as they comfortably produce 13 million tonnes daily and 6 million kilo-tonnes per annum. Phosphate is used in making high quality fertilizer.

The Governor had also visited the Khouribga mining site in Khouribga Province of the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region of Morocco. Khouribga owes its growth to its large deposits of phosphate. It is the largest phosphate mining deposit in the world. The phosphate is being transferred to the chemical complex for making fertilizers.

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