WASHINGTON,
Dec. 19,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- African Agriculture (AAGR), a
Delaware domiciled USA company, which operates agricultural
projects in Africa, has agreed to
a public-private partnership with the Government of Mauritania and the communities of Boghé, (18
agricultural cooperative societies incorporating approximately
6,000 farmers, organized under GIE DYNN), on the Senegal River
Valley for a phased commercial farming buildout up to $500mm of
investment with potential of over 500,000 hectares of arable land.
The initial program will launch with more than 2,000 hectares and
an investment of $30mm US$ in its first phase to further the
farming of Alfalfa for the purpose of providing superior quality
feed for dairy cattle and providing increased agricultural
production for the community. The agreement has been signed in
conjunction with the visit of His Excellency President Mohamed Cheikh Ghazouani's visit to Washington, DC as part of the US
- AfricaLeaders' Summit hosted by the United States Government
and President Biden. After full development, the program is
expected to have substantial impact on the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) of Mauritania and permanent
job creation.
The private sector investment is anticipated to
contribute to employment and economic development directly, and
will include a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program that
will enhance the agricultural and agronomy tertiary education at
ENFVA (Ecole Nationale de Formation et de Vulgarisation
Agricole), an established agricultural education center in the
city of Kaédi, and a women's reinsertion program in Mauritania. To drive the performance of this
program, it is expected that African Agriculture will bring its
agronomy, farming management, capital markets access, commercial
and technology expertise and sustainable power generation
capability, sustainable water and farming input approach to drive
the performance of this project. The Government of Mauritania and its respective local
communities will provide the arable land for African Agriculture to
scale its primary protein production further for local, regional
and export consumption, primarily in the arena of livestock
nutrition.
Speaking on behalf of the Mauritanian Government,
H.E. Minister Ousmane Mamoudou
Kane said: "The Government of Mauritania's new vision for the development of
agricultural land assets is based on the need to change the
paradigm in terms of management of the agricultural potential to
effectively face the many challenges posed by the current global
environment, characterized by the post-COVID recession, soaring
commodity prices, record inflation rates and the war in
Ukraine. The field work, carried
out by the technical committee, particularly in the areas of the
Senegal River valley, has made it possible to establish a channel
for productive dialogue with the local communities who hold the
agricultural land heritage, often organized into cooperatives, and
thus aroused their support for this new approach initiated by the
government. The culmination of this process results in the matching
of these communities with potential investors interested in the
exploitation and management of the identified blocks; with the
required expertise and capital. The approach is bottom up, putting
the landowners at the center of the negotiations'table. We
are happy to open the door to many more of these agreements for the
best interest of our farmers and rural communities."
Former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for
Africa and current African
Agriculture Director, Ambassador Bisa
Williams said, "I am excited by the potential of this
project to strengthen local communities in Mauritania and to advance agriculture
production in the Sahel, and I am deeply encouraged by the
Mauritanian Government's proactive partnership with us."
Speaking on behalf of GIE DYNN, Chairman of the
Board, Mr. Ibrahima N'gaidé stated, "Since the
Extension of the Pilot Case of Boghé (CPB) in 2017, we have always
thought that the pooling of farmers' land and the search for
experienced and capitalized partners are the best way of moving
from subsistence agriculture. to resolutely engage in commercial
scale agriculture for the well-being of the populations and the
achievement of our country's objectives in terms of food
self-sufficiency and the fight against poverty".
African Agriculture Chairman and CEO Mr.
Alan Kessler said, "Food
security is a global problem and community involvement is
imperative to our business model. We are highly enthusiastic to
elevate our commercial farming program that we have implemented in
Northern Senegal to the next
natural growth area that of the other side of the Senegal River
Valley, in southern Mauritania, as
we strive to create a global protein source, integrated with the
Great Green Wall project in the Sahel. The community involvement
here, with production sharing, profit sharing and food security
alternatives, will act as a template throughout Mauritania and the African continent, and we
will continue to build the program for the development of the local
communities, and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Given its world class positioning,
Mauritania can use this program to
meaningfully participate in global farming, and we are honored to
be integrated in the development of President Ghazouani and the
Honorable Ministry's vision for the development of this
vital sector. We appreciate all the effort of the Mauritania
Investment Promotion Agency and the
United States Ambassador to Mauritania, H.E.Cynthia Kierscht in driving this investment, as
we look forward to embracing United
States based farming content in the breadth of our
operations."
About African
Agriculture
African Agriculture is a vegetation-based protein
commercial farming platform beginning with Alfalfa for premium
dairy and beef cattle animal feed with existing operations in
Senegal and Niger. Currently African Agriculture is
building a vertically integrated cattle feed operation on 25,000
hectares in Senegal, and in
Niger is in the development stages
of participating in the primary generation of Carbon Credits via
desertification prevention, soil management and afforestation.
Scalability for the business is expected beyond Senegal and Niger (semi-arid), to Mauritania, and further into the Sahel and
additional sub-tropical areas on the African continent. The
US domiciled company has a highly experienced management team in
large-scale farming, agronomy, technology, operations and finance
with additional, high barrier to entry resources including
academia, irrigation, agronomy, finance and machinery, as well as
commercial aspects. The corporate goal is to enhance farming
productivity yields, and hence boost food security in Africa and globally. African Agriculture
announced that it entered into a business combination agreement
with New York-based 10X Capital
Venture Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ: VCXA) on November 3, 2022, with expected closing date in
the first quarter of 2023, at which point the combined company is
expected to be continue to be publicly traded on the Nasdaq stock
exchange in New York.
Press Contact :
mg@africanagriculture.com
About the Investment Promotion
Agency of Mauritania
The Investment Promotion Agency of Mauritania (APIM) is a public institution in
charge of positioning Mauritania
as a destination of choice for national and foreign investors. It
is placed under the dual technical and financial supervision of the
Minister of Economic Affairs and Promotion of Productive Sectors
and the Minister of Finance. APIM's mission, in collaboration with
the concerned administrations and public and private organizations,
is to contribute to the implementation of the national investment
promotion policy in order to increase the country's productive
capacities, create employment opportunities and thus generate
wealth for the well-being and prosperity of its citizens. Press
Contact: gmahjoub@apim.gov.mr
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SOURCE African Agriculture Inc.