Morocco’s function in sustaining meals safety in Africa is in danger as a consequence of skyrocketing vitality costs and local weather change, a report by the Center East Institute (MEI) warned not too long ago.
The risk comes as greater than 264 million folks in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished on account of poverty and battle and after world meals inflation final yr hit a 10-year excessive.
On the identical time, a lot of the agricultural soil in African international locations is of poor high quality, partly on account of geography, environmental degradation and monoculture farming, which has additional depleted its well being.
Morocco holds about 75% of the world’s reserves of phosphate rock — a mineral utilized in fertilizer. As of 2020, Morocco and Western Sahara — disputed territory of which 80% is run by Morocco — had reserves of round 50 billion metric tons of the rock.
Quite than simply export the uncooked materials, Morocco determined a long time in the past to grow to be one of many world’s largest fertilizer producers. In 2020, its state-owned phosphate miner and fertilizer producer OCP Group had a 54% market share of fertilizer exports to Africa.
By elevating its ambitions, the nation has grow to be a “gatekeeper of the world’s meals provide,” in keeping with the report’s writer, Michael Tanchum, an affiliate senior coverage fellow within the Africa Programme on the European Council on Overseas Relations (ECFR) and a nonresident fellow on the Center East Institute in Washington.
Drought and monoculture farming haven’t helped the soil high quality in a lot of Africa
Farming yields ‘spectacular’
OCP has arrange a number of joint ventures with different African nations to show phosphate into phosphorus, a key nutrient in fertilizers. Already, the agency has subsidiaries in 12 African international locations, together with Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal.
An OCP program known as Agribooster, has benefited greater than 630,000 farmers, in keeping with the report, leading to a lot larger crop yields. Nigeria’s corn yield has grown 48% consequently, and Senegal’s millet yield is up 63%.
“Morocco is attaining spectacular agricultural yield will increase throughout Africa, stopping the continent’s meals disaster from getting worse,” Tanchum instructed DW.
On the identical time, phosphate mining and fertilizer manufacturing are extremely energy- and water-intensive processes, answerable for consuming about 7% of Morocco’s annual energy output and 1% of its water provide, the report said.
One other key ingredient in lots of fertilizers is nitrogen, which is produced utilizing pure fuel. Tanchum wrote that pure fuel accounted for a minimum of 80% of the price of producing nitrogen fertilizers.
Fertilizer and meals costs spike
Pandemic lockdowns over the previous two years constrained the provision of pure fuel, sending costs skyrocketing. The value will increase have “set off a vicious cycle of spiraling fertilizer and meals costs,” Tanchum mentioned, which has not solely had an affect on the price of phosphate manufacturing, however can be threatening to unleash a brand new wave of starvation in sub-Saharan Africa.
Morocco has stepped up investments in photo voltaic and wind energy, however two inexperienced hydrogen initiatives with Germany are on maintain
Although environmental teams are involved in regards to the air pollution brought on by phosphorous-based fertilizers, which affect ingesting water and aquatic life, Tanchum sees renewable vitality as important to serving to Morocco proceed to keep up the expansion of phosphate extraction and fertilizer manufacturing.
This can assist Morocco to “escape the vicious cycle of the upward spiraling of costs within the food-energy-water nexus,” he wrote within the report.
The North African nation already has in depth photo voltaic and wind vitality assets — sufficient to fulfill virtually one-fifth of the nation’s energy wants. The federal government in Rabat has signed offers with Germany in recent times to develop two inexperienced hydrogen vitality initiatives. Nonetheless, the plans are on maintain after a spat between Berlin and Rabat over the contested Western Sahara area.
As Morocco has few pure fuel assets, inexperienced hydrogen has been touted as a approach to assist OCP to synthesize inexperienced ammonia, which has a excessive content material of nitrogen — a key ingredient in fertilizers.
“Utilizing inexperienced vitality for fertilizer manufacturing — each as an vitality supply for making the ‘inexperienced ammonia’ enter to fertilizer — and [water] desalination, is a pathway out of this vicious cycle,” Tanchum mentioned.
With meals inflation more likely to stay excessive throughout 2022, Morocco’s function in serving to to make sure secure and inexpensive produce shall be much more important. Farming will not be solely important to enhance meals safety, however it’s also a serious supply of earnings for Africans, with almost half of Africa’s inhabitants employed within the agricultural sector.
China, Turkey, Russia and the Gulf Arab states had been dashing to spice up agricultural investments in Africa, presenting a possibility for the US and EU to step up their engagement to advertise a inexperienced meals revolution on the continent, Tanchum mentioned.
With out that, he mentioned, the West “will possible see the continued erosion of financial management on the continent.”
Edited by: Hardy Graupner