Global food security and the role of Morocco

Morocco's phosphate policy aims not only to improve production but also to ward off the spectre of malnutrition and famine. Supporting production and fighting poverty are the keys to sustainable food security.

Food security is considered the most important challenge facing the world today and in the future, especially in the face of the population explosion in many countries in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The war in Ukraine has led to a sharp rise in the price of food, fuel and fertiliser, resulting in a global food crisis. On the other hand, climate change, in particular desertification, drought, floods, fires, and alarming temperature rises, are strongly affecting production, especially on small farms and small-scale rain-fed land, which otherwise guarantee food, even seasonally, for many people and households in both poor and developing countries.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a major disruption of supply chains, which has negatively affected the abundance of goods in some countries, particularly those that lack the adequate infrastructure, logistics and financial capacity to ensure continuous imports of goods and guarantee their food security. This has exacerbated the situation of the poor in many countries, and famine has become a spectre that threatens many people in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan and other countries (Lizzy Davies "Famine: what is it, where will it strike and how should the world respond? The Guardian, July 6, 2022).

Oxfam America argues that famine is not just the lack of food, but a complex problem that can be caused by drought, armed conflict or forced resettlement, but becomes more serious when governments do not take strict decisions to reduce these causes. This is what Alex The Wahl calls a political scandal (Chris Hufstader "What is Famine? Causes and Effects and How to Stop it", Oxfam, May 14, 2020). In other words, famine is not an inevitable fate, but a human act linked to governance and responsibility.

Oxfam advocates an integrated approach to famines, which includes providing clean water, hygiene and prevention, distributing food, planting food crops and holding governments accountable (idem.).

But food security is not just about fighting hunger and malnutrition, but about ensuring adequate production in various parts of the world, and ensuring that farmers have access to markets to provide a decent income, encouraging them to improve seed quality, use fertilisers and save water through drip technologies. Strengthening supply chains and making them immune to disruption, ensuring an efficient logistical structure for food distribution, and focusing on access to food for poor, vulnerable and marginalised groups through direct transfers or in-kind assistance are also important measures to ensure sustainable food security.

Morocco plays an important role in global food security. It is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of phosphates and its derivatives, particularly fertilisers used in the production of agricultural goods and staple foods for poor and developing countries. Morocco produced 38 million tonnes of fertiliser in 2021, and although its production is second only to China, Morocco has the largest phosphate reserves, accounting for 70% of the world's reserves, (Melissa Pistilli, "10 Top Phosphate Countries by Production", Phosphates Investing News, Updated 2022) making it a leading country in the field of food security.

Morocco plays a key role in supporting poor countries through the supply of fertiliser. The Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), the world's largest phosphate company, has provided African countries with 550,000 tonnes of fertiliser through donations and discounted sales (Mehdi Ouazzani, "OCP Group offers Africa 550,000 tonnes of fertiliser", Challenge, 21 July, 2022). This figure is expected to rise to around one million tonnes in 2023 and three million in two years' time (OCP, African-American Business Forum, July 2022, Marrakech).

OCP has also made significant investments in 14 African countries, including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon and others, which include setting up local fertiliser production units and ensuring sustainable agricultural production in these countries. It is possible that these investments could be extended to other countries as part of an integrated strategy to ensure food production and good nutrition and to control production chains, especially in areas that are not water stressed or in severe water shortage. 

Ten years ago, OCP, the world's leading exporter of phosphates and its derivatives, began to focus on the production of fertilisers, which now account for 54% of its sales, with a focus on poor countries, particularly sub-Saharan African countries (Julien Wagner, "Fertilisers: OCP, what strategy in Africa?" Jeune Afrique, 17 April 2018), Latin America and Asia. In doing so, Morocco, through OCP, is simultaneously achieving three strategic objectives: fighting poverty and malnutrition in poor and developing countries, ensuring global food security by investing in countries and regions with large areas of arable land and significant water resources, and moving towards more fertiliser production (as opposed to chemicals) to ensure more sustainability along the mining value chain.

Morocco, through OCP, plays and will play an important role in expanding the production area and increasing the quantity and quality of food through its multiple partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. With its control of 70% of the world's phosphate reserves, from which the fertilisers needed to increase the volume, value and quality of foodstuffs are extracted, its role is and will remain crucial, particularly at a time in history characterised by heat waves, droughts, successive floods and other phenomena caused by climate change.

Certainly there are countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Oceania that have the technological capacity, water abundance, land, good governance, and supply chain control models needed, making them leaders in the production of wheat, rice, soybeans, oils, and meats, which are essential for international food security and price stability. Morocco supports these efforts by providing the necessary fertilisers. At the same time, it is focusing on supporting and expanding the production and insurance of commodities in areas where there is increasing poverty and a real threat of famine.

Food security requires the development of an integrated international vision that addresses issues of production, distribution, access, utilisation and stability. This requires coordination between countries to create an integrated system in which roles are clearly defined. But without qualitatively improved production and an abundance that meets the needs of the domestic market first, and regional and international markets second, the system will always be disrupted in its complex value chains.

In terms of production, Morocco will play a key role, particularly through partnerships with countries that have long experience in agriculture, have vast areas and great water potential, and face major challenges in the fight against poverty and fragility. This is the case with Ethiopia, DRC, Kenya, Tanzania, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon etc. This approach is a key to the regional solution. At the same time, localised support to countries suffering from drought and water scarcity, in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, is needed through stronger donor coordination in favour of resilient and adapted subsistence agriculture. OCP can play a leading role in this.