The Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests, Mohammed Sadiki, chaired, this Saturday in Agadir, a meeting focused on maintaining the balance and the sustainability of the early market gardening sector.
The objective of this meeting, held in the presence of the president of the Souss Massa region, the President of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Souss Massa region, the president of the Moroccan Interprofessional Federation for the Production and Exportation of Fruits and FIFEL vegetables, professionals, elected officials and a large delegation of ministry officials, is to propose solutions and recommendations aimed at the development and sustainability of the fruit and vegetable sector.
This meeting, recalls a press release from the ministry, comes after several meetings to coordinate and monitor the production and marketing of fruits and vegetables, in particular tomatoes in the Souss Massa region, during which the stakeholders in the sector met committed to ensuring that the production and marketing campaign takes place under good conditions, thanks to the implementation of measures aimed at determining the quantities intended for export according to supply and demand and the adoption of decisions by the department, related to the future exemption from VAT on products intended for agricultural production.
The Minister, on this occasion, highlighted the efforts made by the department to promote the agricultural sector in general and the fruit and vegetable sector in particular, knowing that it benefits from significant support within the framework of the Generation Green strategy, as a vector of development, notably through the Agricultural Development Fund, the rationalization and management of water resources through the adoption of water-saving irrigation systems (localized irrigation), the mobilization of non-conventional water resources via the desalination of sea water, as well as delegated management within the framework of public-private partnerships.
All of these measures have contributed to a significant improvement in production and the volume of fruit and vegetable exports, he said, noting that the signing of program contracts between the government and the interprofession has contributed positively to the development of productions around aggregation projects and allowed the exploration of new markets and distribution channels at national and international levels, as well as the improvement of production conditions and the encouragement of new investments within the framework of the FDA, having recorded a cumulative subsidy amount that reached 3.2 billion dirhams.
Sadiki further indicated that in order to support the efforts made to improve production and quality, the Souss Massa agropole project, which is a regional structure, offers a space dedicated to the development of processing and marketing and constitutes a logistics and service platform, then the TIS project, the objective of which is the production of sterile male fruit fly insects for the benefit of citrus orchards.
With regard to the export component, he continued, efforts are focused on the qualification and modernization of packaging stations and the adoption of quality control and management systems as well as the upgrading of the transport and marketing with compliance with the standards in force, as well as the diversification of external markets.
The Minister also returned to the objectives of the Generation Green strategy for the section relating to the development of the fruit and vegetable sector, in particular programs for the management and rationalization of water resources, the promotion of investment in the agricultural sector, development, transformation and modernization of wholesale and local markets as well as support for the exploration of external markets and the promotion of youth entrepreneurship in rural areas.
The exchanges of this meeting were focused on the measures to be undertaken for the development of the balance and the sustainability of the fruit and vegetable sectors as well as the improvement of the conditions of their marketing, in particular for the tomato, and this through the support for greenhouse renovation and qualification actions, the promotion of above-ground production, the use of disease-resistant seeds and seedlings, the equipping of farms with localized irrigation systems, the use of plastic crates and the creation of a new generation qualified marketing platform dedicated to wholesale in Ait Melloul, in addition to the implementation of research programs in partnership with professionals.
In this respect, Sadiki assured that his department sees to the establishment of a program for the development and marketing of fruit and vegetables in the region in a participatory framework on the basis of an appropriate agreement involving all stakeholders and taking account of the clauses of the program contract dedicated to the development of early vegetables, signed between the Ministry and the Moroccan Interprofessional Federation for the Production and Export of Fruits and Vegetables FIFEL.
At the end of the meeting, the Minister called on all stakeholders to consolidate efforts in a participatory framework to ensure sustainable agricultural development in the sector, while promoting the role of professional institutions and the pursuit of coordination actions. under the agreements and program contracts signed.