Faced with the decrease in water resources in Morocco, Abdelouafi Laftit, Moroccan Minister of the Interior asked the walis and governors on Tuesday, December 26 to take emergency measures.
This decision comes after a severe warning from Nizar Baraka, Minister of Equipment and Water, who warned of a 5th year of drought hitting Morocco.
Ministers seem to forget, however, that it is agricultural exports that have dried up the country’s water tables. The farmer, a pillar of the Moroccan economy, finds himself threatened.
Morocco has always chosen the agricultural sector as its main axis of development.
In 2019, a study by the Department of Financial Studies and Forecasts of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance justified this position “ given the important issues raised by this sector on an economic, social and territorial level ”
A strategy assumed through the Green Morocco Plan (PMV) of 2008 for “ its ripple effects on the entire national economy through its own performance and its interactions with other economic sectors ”.
When it comes to interaction, the workers at Mohamed Hammouda’s factory know a thing or two. Near Tangier, the factory produces 30 million bags of cereals per year. But since last year this boss has decided to slow down production. In question, a stock of 6 million unsold bags.
Orders are no longer coming due to the drought which has affected the country’s harvests. The workers have been assigned to other production lines, but their layoffs are looming.
Another case, is the onion sector. It alone provides nearly 5 million working days, the equivalent of 18,000 permanent jobs in Morocco.
Jobs for transplanting onion plants, their maintenance during the season, harvesting but also storage.
An operation carried out at the ends of fields by manufacturing windrows on a bed of stones with a layer of straw and then a plastic tarpaulin on top.
Manual operations which employ a large part of the agricultural workforce in the main producing region of El Hadjedj.
But the lack of rain led to a drop in production with an average yield falling from 45 to 20 tonnes per hectare. Result: less hiring.
Speaking in recent days on social networks, Moroccan economist Nadjib Akesbi explains that for two years the country has suffered from “ stagflation ”.
Economic growth expected at just over 4% is only 2.5%. As for inflation, it is 6.5% versus 2% expected.
The situation is such that the government has decided to pay social assistance to more than a million families. A first in the history of Morocco.
Morocco: agriculture, a key engine of growth
The Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture likes to point out that the wealth produced by the agricultural sector increased from 77 billion dirhams in 2008 to 125 billion dirhams in 2018, an increase of 60%.
This allows agriculture to contribute 14% to Morocco’s GDP, but it is above all ” its status as a provider of jobs for a significant segment of the population, nearly 38% of the employed active population ” which is highlighted by agricultural services.
Estimates reassessed by Sébastien Abis, associate researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, according to which agriculture contributes 20% of GDP and 40% of total employment, including 80% in rural areas, which “ ensures an income directly or indirectly to 15 million people, or more than 40% of the Kingdom’s population.
The French expert concludes that in Morocco agriculture represents “ a key engine of growth ”.
Hazardous management of agricultural exports
The PMV is based on aid mainly granted to the modern agricultural sector alongside another sector considered traditional.
A plan criticized by Nadjib Akesbi who denounces the emphasis placed on agricultural exports. Strategy also denounced by academic Tahar Sraïri in Rabat due to excessive water hoarding by export crops (tomatoes, citrus fruits, watermelons, red fruits).
To support export crops, for years, the drilling and acquisition of irrigation equipment have been largely subsidized to the tune of 80%, making it possible to irrigate 1.6 million hectares.
In order to save the quantities of water used, the drip irrigation technique was favored.
But it did not prevent the share of water used by the agricultural sector from remaining at 87%. To satisfy exports, Moroccan farmers mainly used surface water from dams but also, much to the chagrin of expert Marcel Kuper, water from groundwater.
For this expert in agricultural hydraulics stationed for several years in Morocco, but now returned to Montpellier and freed from a right of reserve, the aquifers constitute a strategic reserve to be used only in the event of a crisis. And faced with the water shortage crisis, he calls for “ opening a debate on the choices to make going forward ”.
In Morocco, groundwater tables are all at their lowest level. As one farmer sums it up, “ there is no more water in the earth and in the sky ”.
In the Saïs, the depth of the aquifer increased from 5 meters in 1969 to 135 meters in 2019. Located near the coast in the Agadir region, the Chtouka aquifer shows a deficit of nearly 90 million m3 per year and is threatened by seawater infiltration.
As far as occupied Western Sahara where the important pillaged Dakhla water table is threatened.
Around sixty years ago in Morocco, the annual availability of water per inhabitant was divided by 4. It went from more than 2500 m3 to 560 m3.
According to the Moroccan Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, currently, the filling rate of Morocco’s dams does not exceed 24% compared to 31% last year.
The minister who spoke on December 21 after a Government Council meeting spoke of a “ very dangerous situation ” and then warned in these terms: “ We have entered a critical phase after five consecutive years of drought that our country has never experienced. previously known.
The minister indicated that “the rainfall has decreased by 67% ” and the current low rains of “the last three months, from October to December, show that we are heading towards a new year of drought ”.
But not a word on the kingdom’s policy concerning the export of agricultural products that consume a lot of water.
After the end of the PMV, a new Generation Green 2020-2030 plan was adopted, but it only consolidated the option of agricultural exports.
Hazardous agricultural strategy
It is through a circular that Abdelouafi Laftit emphasizes “ the threat that this problem poses to public order and its socio-economic repercussions ”.
He also ordered an “absolute ban ” on the watering of green spaces, the use of water for cleaning streets, and the “ filling of public and private swimming pools more than once a year ”…
We can be surprised by this last recommendation when the Minister of Agriculture predicts a continued rise in temperatures which can only increase the evaporation of water in water reservoirs, which act as swimming pools or dams.
In agricultural matters, the circular addresses the ban on “ aquavorous crops ”, in consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture.
In 2022, Morocco was pleased to have dethroned Italy on the European market and to have become the second supplier of watermelons behind Spain.
A result obtained thanks to a doubling of exports between 2019 and 2022 but not without repercussions on the drinking water supply.
In Zagora, in southern Morocco, “ thirst demonstrations ” took place in 2017 to protest against water shortages and the heavy withdrawals made from the groundwater for watermelon cultivation.
In addition to the export of fruits and vegetables, the cultivation of cannabis will be legalized in 2021 for medical, cosmetic, and industrial purposes.
Compared to traditional varieties, the new varieties are more productive but also more water-intensive.
Last May the French daily Le Monde reported that in the Rif, the road between Ketama and Chefchaouen reveals “ dozens of retention basins, illegal pumping, pipes ”.
In Chefchaouen, we are witnessing a real “ water war ”. According to the testimony of farmers and according to the same source, this war is declared “ between farmers who drain large quantities into rivers and groundwater, and those who do not have the means ”.
This a tragic situation for small farmers whose consequence would be: “ Peasants [who] emigrate to cities or abroad and rent their land ”.
Hazardous management of water resources
Faced with the recurring lack of water, the Moroccan authorities plan to connect the dams and develop seawater desalination.
According to official data, Morocco currently has seven desalination stations producing 143 million m3 annually.
By 2027, there is talk of building 7 more with a program of 11 billion euros in order to produce nearly 180 million additional m3.
A project to build a seawater desalination plant in Agadir aims in particular to irrigate 15,000 hectares of early produce.
An ambition that is brought to naught by the Nechfate. ma platform which brings together and shares the main information on climate change in Morocco.
A study published last January puts the cost of a cubic meter of desalinated water at nearly 10 dirhams, compared to 1 dirham currently, and concludes: “ Irrigation with desalinated water would then be an economic aberration in many sectors. agricultural sectors, with the exception of sectors with very high added value, such as strawberries.
We are witnessing a headlong rush with piecemeal measures that cannot allow the continuation on a large scale of export agriculture often described as “ extractive ” due to the enormous quantities of water required.
It seems that a large part of the agricultural sector was sacrificed as the exhaustion of local water reserves was predicted.
The lack of rain observed over the past 5 years could have led to a reorientation towards crops that use less water.
Crops are intended for the needs of the local population, but the know-how of Moroccan farmers is put at the service of European consumers.
Moroccan citizens are not fooled. This is evidenced by the comments published on social networks after the Minister of the Interior’s announcements: “ Let’s stop the lawyer culture for 10 years. And let’s suspend the export of tomatoes, oranges, and melons for 5 years, the latter must be cultivated just enough to meet the country’s needs.
According to a recent report from the High Commission for Planning, unemployment is reaching peaks in Morocco: 80% among women and 77% among young people. In one year nearly 300,000 jobs were lost in the countryside.
Faced with this situation, will Morocco have the means to review its agricultural strategy without endangering a large number of jobs in rural areas?
