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Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, of Bauchi state has flagged-off a ‘School Lab’ innovative programme for 10,000 smallholder maize farmers to increase the yield per hectare and improve their livelihood in 70 communities across the state.
The OCP School is both a school and a lab that will operates in a caravan of trucks to provides mobile interactive training sessions on good agricultural practices for rural farmers, using live demos and animated videos.
Akintunde Akinwande Business development manager OCP Africa, Nigeria Office, said in a statement that the schools is being manned by trained personnel that will offer farmers on-site soil testing to determine the peculiar needs of the soil and fertilizer recommendations.
He noted that the program will also educate farmers on the rate of fertilizer useage, and the best time for its application.
According to the statement, the initiative is the first of its kind launched by a fertilizer producer in Africa, bringing latest soil testing innovations and effective agronomical training to serve the needs of farmers across the continent.
Speaking during the flag-off ceremony, held recently at Nabordo, Toro Local Government Area of the state, Governor Abubakar lauded the OCP Group for the warm reception the company gave him and his delegation when they recently visited its headquarters in Morocco.
He expressed his appreciation to the company for choosing Bauchi as its centre of operation to implement OCP School Lab across the four states of Bauchi, Kano, Katsina and Kaduna.
“This extensive agricultural soil testing is not only happening for the first time in the state, but it also promises to significantly lift up the productivity of rural smallholder farmers. Bauchi is mainly an agrarian state, and one of the major developmental agenda of our government is to transform the fortunes of farmers in the state,” the governor explained.
Speaking on behalf of Karim Lotfi Senhadji, CEO of OCP Group, Caleb Usoh, the country manager of the company in Nigeria, thanked Governor Abubakar, saying that the biggest reception and encouragement that his company has benefitted from, so far, has come from the Government of Bauchi State.
Usoh explained that, OCP School Lab is one of the technological methods that the fertilizer company has put in place to help small holder farmers to drastically improve their productivity.
He stated that the caravan goes round to take soil samples in the locations where the farmers are based, analyse them, and then produce specific fertilizers for the crop type and soil type.
“We seek to feed the soil in the right manner. The soil then feeds the crop. And finally, the crop feeds the people,” he added.
OCP School Lab is being implemented by OCP Africa, in partnership with Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP), which is responsible for the farmers’ mobilization, training, and logistics for the caravan.
Another partner of this program is International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), which is in charge of agronomic advice based on soil nutrient experts, as well as providing a mobile application for fertilizer recommendations.
OCP Africa is a subsidiary of the Morocco’s OCP Group, a leading global provider of phosphate and its derivatives, with almost 100 years of experience. The subsidiary was established in 2016 to work directly with farmers to contribute to unlocking Africa’s vast agricultural potential.
The company produces fertilizer solutions, customized to local conditions and crop needs, and also works with African governments, non-profits and private enterprises to connect farmers to the knowledge, services and resources that they need in order to prosper.
HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA
