The final results of the 2017-2018 cereal season, based on field harvest yield measurements, show an exceptional harvest of 103 million quintals, which exceeds that of the previous season by ….
The final results of the 2017-2018 cereal season, based on field harvest yield measurements, show an exceptional harvest of 103 million quintals, which exceeds that of the previous season by 7.3 percent.By species of major cereals, final production is distributed as follows, 49.1 million quintals of common wheat, 24.2 million quintals of durum wheat and 29.2 million quintals of barley.
This production was made on an area sown with main cereals of 4.5 million hectares, against 5.4 million hectares in 2016-17, i.e. less than 16 percent, compared to the previous season.
The reduction in cereal area is due to the very late arrival of the autumn rains, which greatly shortened the sowing period.
However, and despite this difficult start, the season was able to benefit from a better expression of production potential, especially cereals, thanks to the technical and technological efforts that brought great advances in the performance of the technical itineraries promoted by the Green Morocco Plan.
The exceptional harvest also derives from a continuation of the crop season in excellent climatic conditions characterized by the abundance, the regularity and the good distribution in space and time of rainfall and the mild temperatures throughout the growing season.
In fact, the 2017/2018 crop year recorded cumulative rainfall of 402.3 mm, against 362.6 mm for a normal season, i.e. 11 percent (or 40 mm) more.
This performance for the 2017/2018 harvest results from a record average annual yield of 22.9 quintals/hectare, representing an increase of 27 percent over the previous season and 7 percent, compared to 2014/2015, having witnessed an exceptional production of 115 million quintals for an area of 5.37 million hectare of cereals.
In addition, this yield is 21.5 percent higher than average cereal yields during good rainfall seasons, over the last ten years.
