El calor y la falta de lluvias comprometen la campaña agrícola en Marruecos
The high temperatures recorded since March in several parts of Morocco, combined with insufficient rainfall, have flooded Moroccan farmers with pessimism, as they anticipate a poor agricultural season to add to last year's, when the country suffered its worst drought in seven decades.
This situation, in addition to the rising prices of fertilisers, seeds and phytosanitary products on the international market, has pushed up prices in the Maghreb country, where food inflation rose to 20.1% at the end of February.
This week saw a new heat wave with temperatures ranging between 34 and 40 degrees Celsius in different regions of the country, according to the orange alert bulletin of the General Directorate of Meteorology.
According to climate and sustainable development specialist Mohamed Benabbou, "these heat waves are going to precipitate the harvest", which will have a negative effect on the quantity and quality of various crops.
In the same vein, the president of the Moroccan Confederation of Farmers and Rural Development (COMADER), Rachid Benali, points out that the succession of years of drought and high temperatures are impacting the production of cereals, pulses and oil crops, with the exception of olive trees.
Benali is hopeful that, if it rains in the coming weeks, vegetable production could be saved for this spring and summer.
Several farmers consulted by EFE expressed their alarm at the situation and called for government intervention to help them.
"These temperatures are not normal. It hasn't rained since the end of February. In March, which is the base of the season, there has been no rain at all. The wheat plants have only grown 40 to 50 centimetres and then stopped growing," laments Abdelmayid el Uardi, a farmer in the village of Ain Aouda, some 30 kilometres south of Rabat.
El Uardi has some 40 hectares of land, mostly rain-fed, on which he plants wheat, barley and oats, and pessimistically tells that this year he expects to get only a 20% harvest.
From one of the plots where he grows wheat, he sadly shows some plants that have completely dried out, while in another part of the field, his assistant can be seen harvesting the rest with the help of a small tractor.
"The other fields are already lost, I'll let the herders use them," he laments.
The rise in the price of raw materials on his business has hit him hard. Now, he says, fertilisers cost him 45% more.
"There are farmers in the area who are selling their land because they can't stand it any longer. The small farmer is disappearing and the medium-sized farmer is on the way out," he warns.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Equipment and Water, the water situation in the country has improved compared to 2022, which was the driest year since 1945. Nearly half of the country's 152 large reservoirs recorded filling rates exceeding 50 per cent in mid-March.
But experts estimate that this is not enough in the face of the water stress the country is suffering as a result of climate change and also the overexploitation of aquifers.
Mohamed Benabbou laments that the country has lost 1 billion cubic metres of its 4 billion cubic metres of water table reserves.
The Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, warned in the upper house of parliament that 90 % of the 372,000 wells registered in the country are illegal, while his department is studying their depth and measures to control drilling.
To support the agricultural and livestock sector, the government has launched measures such as eliminating tariffs on the import of cattle, subsidising the prices of nitrogen fertilisers and seeds for some crops, such as potatoes and cereals, and eliminating VAT on some agricultural products and equipment.
But farmers like Uardi see these as insufficient. They call for more actions, such as exempting small farmers from paying their debts, eliminating interest rates on loans to these professionals or creating platforms so that they can sell their produce without intermediaries.