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OCP Africa, a subsidiary of the OCP Group, a leading global producer of phosphate and its derivatives with almost 100 years of experience, is to re-launch its agro school lab initiative known as the “OCP School Lab” (OSL) at Ejura in the Ashanti Region, to support smallholder Ghanaian farmers.

The pilot programme commenced in Asesewa, Eastern region in November 2017 reaching 2,000 farmers from 20 communities with one OSL truck.

In 2018, the campaign covered Brong Ahafo and Northern regions but this time, two OSL trucks and two soil lab equipment were used. This campaign also had about 160 communities covered, with 21,325 farmers reached and educated on good agricultural practices.

In the first half of 2019, the campaign has covered the Eastern and Upper East regions and have been executed with two trucks covering 150 communities and reaching 22,325 farmers.

For the second half of 2019, OCP Africa is raising the campaign a notch higher as the OCP School Lab (OSL) is set to arrive Ejura in the Ashanti region with 3 trucks and is expected to reach an additional 30,000 farmers in 160 communities in both Ashanti and then Upper West Region.

OSL is a mobile soil laboratory that travels to remote areas to meet smallholder farmers where they are, provides soil testing, and then makes recommendations for fertilizer application that meet their soil and crop needs.

OCP School Lab in Africa

Since 2016, more than 270 000 farmers in 8 African countries have benefited from OCP

School Labs, namely in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Senegal.

The program is now a powerful tool designed to contribute to sustainable development of African agriculture.

This holistic approach is helping farmers to improve their productivity by offering them a wide range of services from demonstrations and interactive training sessions on good agricultural practices to agronomy advice.