By Mercy Imali
Mostafa Terrab becomes the first African to be elected chairman of the global body representing the fertilizer industry. Terrab is the CEO of OCP Group, one of the world’s leading fertilizer exporters. He succeeds Rakesh Kapur as chair of the International Fertilizer Association (IFA).
Terrab holds a PHD in Operations Research from MIT. He previously worked in the Moroccan government and at the World Bank before joining OCP Group in 2006.
Terrab’s priorities include to focus on innovation and to address the still unacceptably low levels of fertilizer use in Africa.
“By scaling up improved soil analysis and nutrient best management practices, farmers in Africa can increase the efficiency and productivity of their farms and avoid the additional conversion of an estimated 80 million hectares of additional land to desert,” said Terrab.
He also pledged to increase efforts to attract more youth and women into roles across the agriculture. Despite most of Africa’s population being under the age of 24, the average age of farmers is 60 years old.
Soil fertility across much of Africa is low. Over 40% of soils face nutrient depletion. The average use of fertilizers in most African countries is still around 16kg per hectare, which is far below the continent-wide recommendation of about 100kg per hectare. As a result, average crop yields are only a fraction of those enjoyed by other regions, and risk not keeping up with the continent’s growing need for food.