The country has relied on irrigation and off-season crops. A successful strategy economically, but it thirsts a country that suffers from droughts.
By exporting its tomatoes, watermelons, strawberries or oranges, Morocco sells the water it lacks. In a country facing a severe drought, this cry of alarm is becoming more and more insistent. It comes from scientists, environmental activists and associations, who warn against the consequences of water-intensive agriculture and turned, for the most part, towards export rather than towards self-sufficiency.
A recent government decision echoed this. Signed by the agriculture and budget ministers, and published on September 22, it puts an end to subsidies for citrus, watermelon and avocado crops, decried for their role in the drying up of certain regions. . Concretely, it will no longer be possible to benefit from aid allowing investment in localized irrigation: digging of wells, pumping, drip equipment, etc.
The objective: to stop the extension of the irrigated areas of these crops which have “reached, or even exceeded, the objectives set” to “give way to other crops”, says the Ministry of Agriculture. This intends to encourage crops that “consume less water, in particular the carob tree, the cactus, the almond tree, the caper tree, the fig tree”.
Daily cuts
If the measure is hailed as going in the right direction, its impact is however likely to be only very moderate. “First, because there will always be investors who can afford to set up without subsidies. Above all, because the large farms that practice these intensive and irrigated crops already exist and are enough to dry everything out”, deplores Salima Belemkaddem, of the Maroc Environnement 2050 movement, who insists on “the urgency of a radical change in the agricultural model, given the extent of the damage.
In this North African country subject to repeated droughts, the situation is alarming. Thursday, October 6, the average filling rate of the dams was only 24%. “Farmers are digging deeper and deeper wells to find water. All groundwater aquifers are overexploited; some are totally exhausted in places,” worries Fouad Amraoui, professor of water sciences at Hassan-II University in Casablanca. The lack of water threatens even the supply of villages and towns, leading some municipalities to restrict the flow of drinking water or to establish daily cuts.
Morocco is in a situation of “structural water stress”, recalled the World Bank in July in a report on the Moroccan economy. With 600 cubic meters of water per person per year – compared to 2,600 cubic meters in 1960 – the demand for water far exceeds the available resources. “At 500 cubic meters, we will reach the critical shortage threshold. Many regions are already below this,” warns Mr. Amraoui. In this context, the country is faced with a dilemma: how to reconcile an intensive agricultural model which represents 14% of GDP and employs 40% of the active population, but monopolizes 85% of national water consumption, with the imperative to preserve what remains of its water resources?
The choices of the Cherifian kingdom in terms of the agricultural policy were engraved in stone in 2008 through the Green Morocco Plan (PMV), a ten-year strategy aimed at making the agricultural sector a priority lever for the socio-economic development of the country. Modernization, intensification, crop diversification, land liberalization were the key-words. In terms of wealth created, its success is undeniable. Agricultural GDP grew by 5.25% annually; exports increased by 117% over the period. Nearly three hundred and forty thousand jobs have been created, according to official figures On the other hand, it has increased the pressure on water resources.
Small farmers “forced to sell”
“The PMV has amplified the transition from traditional rain-fed agriculture – cereals, legumes, pastoral livestock… – to a productivist model based on the intensification of irrigation to unsustainable levels”, explains Mohamed Taher Sraïri, teacher-researcher at the Agronomic and Veterinary Institute of Rabat. According to the World Bank, Morocco has “more than tripled” its cultivated areas under localized drip irrigation since the end of the 2000s” lead to “increase rather than decrease the total quantity of water consumed by the agricultural sector”, underlines the institution.
In fact, many farmers have converted to it, encouraged by subsidies and the opening up to international markets, to make arid lands cultivable and develop off-season fruit and vegetable production intended for export, which is certainly profitable. , but very water-consuming. “We started growing citrus trees in regions where the annual rainfall level does not exceed 200 millimeters, whereas these trees require a minimum of 1,000 millimeters. We grew watermelons, composed of 95% water, in the confines of the desert. We planted avocado trees, a tropical crop, even though our climate is semi-arid!”, denounces Mr. Sraïri.
“The development of these cultures was done in the same logic of excessive mobilization of groundwater because the rain does not fall enough and that the irrigation from the dams is insufficient or non-existent, he continues. Finally, the European consumer can buy Moroccan watermelons from the end of March, but at what environmental cost? “ Social cost too, because the plan has benefited the big farmers more: “The small farmers, who do not have the means to dig, are forced to sell and leave.”
Food addiction
Added to these vulnerabilities is a food security issue. Indeed, “the PMV favored export crops to the detriment of food crops, those intended to meet the needs of the population, such as cereals, sugar, seed oils, as explained by the economist Najib Akesbi. As a result, Morocco imports 100% of its corn needs, 98% in seed oils, more than half in wheat and sugar. He finds himself in an addiction he had never known. And the consequences of which he now measures with the surge in world prices.
In 2020, a new plan, Generation Green 2020-2030, was launched. In line with the previous plan, it aims to double agricultural GDP and exports by 2030. It is also a question of “resilience” to climate change, of “eco-efficiency”, of “doubling water efficiency”. Will these promises be enough to prevent thirst in Morocco? For Mr. Akesbi, “it is from top to bottom that agricultural policy must be rethought. Are we about to do it? Unfortunately, I don’t believe so.”
