OCP, Morocco’s national company for the mining of phosphate, has planned an increase in production of phosphate-enhanced fertiliser to meet overall rising demand, a report said.

The extra provisions is expected to double the company’s mining capabilities, added the Morocco World News report.

OCP, which also participates in Meknes’ International Exhibition of Agriculture, said the firm was one of the first African companies interested in reducing the carbon footprint from its activities by reducing its emissions of polluting gases and adopting an environmentally responsible way to manage waste, it said.

In 2014, the Moroccan company recycled more than 19 tonnes of metal waste. The company’s strategy to improve its operational use of water includes the firm’s desalination plant Jorf Lasfar and initiatives in many Moroccan cities.

The company said its plans to continue green practices correspond with King Mohammed VI’s Green Morocco programme, which employs farmers in the kingdom and other African countries through its soil study, which has gathered 26,000 samples from 6.8 million hectares of land to evaluate the farmland’s fertiliser needs.

Mostafa Terrab, CEO of the OCP, said earlier this year that his company would be the world’s largest producer of fertilisers by the year 2017 as result of contributions from four new complexes tasked with creating the product essential for the world’s agriculture industry, added the report.