Marruecos ayuda a enfrentar la crisis alimentaria de África ante el aumento del precio de la energía y el cambio climático

The Middle East Institute (MEI) has produced a report revealing that the situation in Africa is disastrous. The food crisis is worsening the situation of those countries with the least resources and people are already beginning to suffer the consequences. Currently, more than 264 million people are at risk of malnutrition due to poverty, conflict in their regions or even global food price inflation, which continues to rise and has been reaching record prices for the past 10 years. The institute reports that the insecurity of the territory's inhabitants is also due to rising energy prices and climate change. 

Moreover, the soil on the continent in most African countries is often of poor quality, and planting is almost impossible. Geography and weather conditions, exacerbated by rising global temperatures, affect sub-Saharan Africa's ability to grow first-growth produce, and monoculture production is not a good solution. 

Despite this, one of the countries that is trying hardest to solve the problem is Morocco. The Alawi country's struggle, and its ambition to manage resources such as energy, is saving Africa from collapse. In addition, the Kingdom holds 75 % of the world's reserves of phosphate, a mineral that is used to make fertilisers that can help in the process of planting food.

"Morocco's role in the international trading system, securing both the supply and price of fertilisers, will be even more vital to the stability and accessibility of food supplies. Morocco is achieving impressive increases in agricultural yields across Africa, preventing the continent's food crisis from worsening," says Michael Tanchum, author of the report and associate fellow for policy in the Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

Morocco has, for several decades, been dedicated to the production of this natural resource, and over the years, the country has been described as the 'world's leading fertiliser producer'. So much so that in 2020, thanks to OCP Group, the main company working in the country as a fertiliser producer, it accounted for 54% of exports of the material to Africa. 

As the report points out, the last two years have been worrying as the pandemic has unleashed prices for everything. Tanchum says that "price increases have triggered a vicious circle of spiralling fertiliser and food prices" and this in turn may be the trigger for a new wave of hunger in Africa, so Morocco's contribution is proving key to preventing a crisis from unfolding.

The Kingdom is one of the nations with so many resources that it is capable of powering more than a fifth of Africa. In addition, the Maghreb country is becoming involved in more sustainable projects that are contributing to the improvement of the environment. Phosphate, being a mineral, its extraction and treatment has worried several environmental groups, who see danger as it can contaminate drinking water.

Despite this, the Moroccan government has sought solutions to avoid major inconveniences, and is beginning to treat phosphate with green hydrogen to produce fertilisers. The use of this other resource is having great benefits in decarbonising the industry and reducing emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere, so its use in handling the mineral is important.

"The use of green energy for fertiliser production, both as a source of energy to make the 'green ammonia' input to fertiliser, and water desalination, is a way out of the vicious circle of spiralling prices in the food-energy-water nexus," Tanchum added in the paper.