Agriculture remains the main job provider in Morocco. More than 40% of the population lives from this agricultural sector which generates 14% of the GDP. Also, the growth rate of the Kingdom has direct causal links with agricultural production.
The agricultural area is estimated at 8,700,000 hectares (12.25% of the total area). The question of water is crucial for the development of the country’s agriculture and the main productions consist of cereals (55% of the agricultural area (soft wheat 45%, barley 35% and durum wheat 20%) , citrus fruits, olives, fruit rosacea, sugar beets, food legumes, market gardening and livestock which also constitutes an important component of this sector, etc.
With the “Green Morocco Plan” (PMV), Morocco had prioritized agriculture for the next ten years with the objective of make a successful sector capable of being a locomotive of the country’s economy, to fight against poverty and to maintain a large population in rural areas, which roughly speaking or on the whole was achieved. In 2020, a new agricultural development plan was born.
Named Generation Green 2020-2030 (GG 2020/30), this new Moroccan agricultural strategy, which follows in the footsteps of the PMV, is more ambitious and aims to make up for the shortcomings of the latter. After calling for an overhaul of the agricultural promotion strategy in Morocco, based on the achievements of the PMV, King Mohammed VI supervised the launch of Generation Green 2020-2030 in February 2020. This new plan aimed to create 350,000 jobs.
It had been specially designed to favor a rural middle class which was to benefit from access to one million hectares (royal instructions October 2018). GG 2020/30 then set fairly diversified development objectives affecting the rural and agricultural world.
Four main axes emerged, the creation of a new model based on a participatory approach, the management and development of forest areas, the promotion and modernization of forestry professions and finally, the institutional reform of the sector through the creation of two agencies and the qualification of human resources.
The other objective is also to increase Morocco’s agricultural exports to $6 billion while increasing agricultural GDP to $25 billion. Except that three years after the launch of GG 2020/30 very little water has flowed under the bridge and with the international situation, it is clear that there is a delay in ignition.
Also, the leaders of the Moroccan agricultural sector and the authorities are therefore called upon to take urgent measures to improve the quality of agricultural products and increase their productivity, in addition to lowering consumer prices. It’s because along the way we realized these impacts “independent of our good will”, that we had to refocus on internal production of staple foods and minimize dependence on imports.
The priority, today in Morocco, is food security, and thereby the protection of farmers, especially small ones, faced with real threats such as droughts and other extreme meteorological and climatic hazards that Morocco, moreover, is facing currently and with full force.
Also, reducing food prices, improving access and contributing to greater prosperity for Moroccans only becomes a primary and essential obligation. The increase in food prices is 18.2% during this first quarter compared to the same period of the past financial year according to the High Commission for Planning. Still according to this source, the same goes for the inflation rate, which reached 9.4%.
It is a feeling of grumbling that prevails, thus calling on the government to take urgent measures to stop the phenomenon and to protect the basket of the housewife. Left-wing parties and trade unions were quick to seize on this theme, which arouses great concern in certain circles of Moroccan society.
On the government side, we are working to find short- and long-term solutions to mitigate the impact of this economic crisis, which we would have gladly done without. The World Bank about this situation recently indicated that Morocco was suffering the effects of a series of shocks both domestic and imported. It will be better tomorrow says the song! If by chance the story follows…