These crops, essential to ensure food security in these two West African countries, operate at yields well below their full potential due in part to a lack of professionalization, inadequate agricultural practices, and lack of access to financing, according to a joint release.

As part of this partnership, IFC will provide consulting services to farmers and agricultural groups that are members of OCP Africa's Agribooster program to reach nearly 12,000 Ivorian and Senegalese farmers by 2022.

This project aims at strengthening the technical, financial, and managerial skills of cooperatives and to improve agricultural practices by integrating climate-smart solutions for water and soil management.

It also aims to speed up the digitization of payment systems in both value chains and the development of a rating tool to improve access to farmers' financing, the source added.

"We are very pleased with this partnership with OCP Africa, a strong contributor to the development of agriculture in Africa, which aims to promote more responsible and environmentally friendly agriculture," said Xavier Reille, IFC's Maghreb Director, as quoted in the release.

"This partnership embodies our vision of unlocking the potential of African agriculture sustainably, through a holistic approach, involving key players in the value chain, to the benefit of smallholder farmers," said Mohamed Anouar Jamali, Managing Director of OCP Africa.

A subsidiary of the OCP Group, the world leader in phosphate and derivatives market, OCP Africa, with whom IFC signed an agreement in principle in January 2020 for enhanced collaboration, is a strategic player in Africa for the development of sustainable and intelligent agriculture that values the work of small producers and strengthens food security.