Morocco

Climate change is challenging farmers all over the world. Abdellah Haji struggles to produce fruit, vegetable and cereal crops in arid Hamam Fougani (Figuig Oasis) in the Oriental Region of Morocco.

NEF and USAID are working together with local partners, ACAF and AMAL, through our Agricultural Water Management project to raise awareness about water conservation and to introduce farming techniques to increase productivity and individual incomes while using less water.

An active participant in AWM trainings since 2011, Abdellah adopted a range of new agricultural and water management practices, resulting in an overall increase in income of 14% over the project’s first year. In Hamam Fougani and three neighboring Figuig villages, 192 project participants surveyed at the end of the 2011-12 growing season reported average income increases of 14% from vegetables and 18% from dates as a result of these new techniques.

The results of Abdellah’s new production techniques were very encouraging. His corn leaves are larger and greener than in previous years and the date palms have produced more dates early in the growing season than in previous years.

Traditionally, Abdellah and other Moroccan farmers pollinated their date trees in May. However, the change in climate has resulted in warmer temperatures and a shorter winter season, leading to a divergence in pollen production between male and female tress and throwing off traditional practices. Through the AWM project, Abdellah and his neighbors have learned to pollinate by timing it with temperature. Abdellah pollinates in early spring and sees significant results at this early stage.

Changing the timing of pollination is one of several ways Abdellah benefitted from the knowledge he gained through the AWM project. He also now uses conservation and preparation techniques to conserve manure for soil enrichment during planting season. In tandem with this organic fertilizer, Abdellah began practicing crop rotation introduced through AWM training to manage soil fertility. In a single bed, he plants peas in the spring, corn (for forage) in summer and fallow during the fall. In other plots, he rotates potatoes, onions, and parsley.

Now, having learned a range of techniques for using agricultural water more efficiently, he is making plans to install drip irrigation and already completed a study to place a pump for the purpose.

Through the AWM project, NEF and local partners are training approximately 2,500 Moroccan farmers in simple techniques, like those adopted by Abdellah, to improve production and income and equip them with knowledge and tools to sustain agriculture in the face of a changing climate.

Gradually decreasing water resources threaten to undermine the agricultural foundation of Morocco’s Oriental Region. Up to 60% of water is lost through seepage in the generations-old traditional canal irrigation systems. Through the Agricultural Water Management (AWM) project, USAID and NEF are working together with local organizations to introduce simple solutions to help farmers overcome water shortages in one of the poorest and most water-scarce regions of the country. Drip irrigation has enabled some farmers to reduce their water usage by 60% or more.

For years, Tbatit Lakhder Mohamed needed three full basins of water to irrigate his parcel in the village of Laayat, where he typically grows peas, beans, and potatoes. After AWM training, Mohamed purchased and installed drip irrigation on the land. He now needs only one basin of water to irrigate the same parcel, a 66% savings.

In addition, Mohamed has reduced the time and energy he spends filling the trenches between each planting row with furrow irrigation. In a community where people are cautious about taking new risks, he is serving as an example to his neighbors of how to mitigate the impact of growing water scarcity. Based on Mohamed’s experience, at least 20 others in his village are now mobilizing to install their own systems.

Agriculture is the most important economic activity in the Oriental Region. There is great unmet potential to increase production by small farmers, allowing them to transition to market-oriented production and to increase their income. However, the impacts of climate change and of inefficient, labor-intensive traditional irrigation techniques present serious constraints to achieving this potential.

Created for arid and semi-arid areas, drip lines are capable of delivering controlled amounts of water directly to the plant roots. Drip improves over traditional canal irrigation by reducing the volume of irrigation water needed in fields, eliminating water losses from concrete cracks or unlined channels, and avoiding problems associated with overwatering.

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Through AWM, NEF and its partners are training farmers in 22 villages about efficient water management. NEF and its partners train farmers in the benefits of drip irrigation and other low-cost water conservation techniques, encourages them to adopt new techniques, including drip irrigation,, and provide technical assistance so that they can install and operate new technologies effectively.

Berkoukess-Figuig, a town located on the Moroccan border with Algeria, is economically dependent on the cultivation of date palms. This is also true for resident, Mohamed Nosser, a farmer who has recently experienced unprecedented success cultivating healthy date palms because of his participation in the Agricultural Water Management (AWM) program, a partnership between the Near East Foundation and USAID.

Originally, Mohamed used a general NPK fertilizer product, and was not satisfied with the condition, or the profitability of his plants. He adopted the AWM recommendations with the hope of improving his crop. Mohamed switched to TSP fertilizer, and urea fertilizer, and added an organic fertilizer which provides better nutrition for the date palms. He began applying fertilizers at the base of the palm in a 1.5m x 1.5m x 1m area. Mohamed tried the AWM technique of drip irrigation to decrease water consumption and costs, and he tried a new variety of date palms, aziza. These were not techniques that he had previously employed.

As a result of his hard work, and his use of these new methods, Mohamed Nosser’s date palms look better than ever. His trees are healthier, greener, and have more date growth at this stage of the year than they ever have before. Additionally, Mohammed’s farm has become more economically viable, and he is conserving resources more efficiently.

Mohamed’s success has also had an impact on his community, and farmers from around Figuig, including Hamam Fougani, have visited his farm to inquire about his success. Mohamed can now encourage his peers to adopt his successful techniques, and thereby aid economic growth and responsible resource management across his community.

Mohamed’s example is characteristic of NEF’s goals in the region of community driven responsible resource management, the implementation of progressive agricultural techniques, and shared success between individuals and communities.

Fanna Aamoumi is 56 years old. She was born and raised in the village of Asseghmou in the High Atlas Mountains, and is now married with seven children.

Fanna did not have a chance to attend school growing up, and didn’t learn to read and write until she took an NEF-sponsored literacy class at age 45. It changed her life.

She has since risen to a plethora of leadership positions with her community, and become deeply involved in promoting female education through her local parent-teacher organization. She is president of her village’s development association and runs a 69-woman cheese-making cooperative, in addition to providing human resources support for NEF’s activities in her area.

Saadia Sriar is 39 years old. She has lived in the Ennakhil slum in rural Oued Zem with her husband for the past 20 years and now has five children. She started her professional career working days in Casablanca’s factories and evenings weaving rugs, a skill that has been passed down through the generations of her family. However, after the birth of her first couple of children she had to quit working to take care of her family and help her husband with his job as a night guard.

“I was working day and night to produce goods to sell around Casablanca at miserably low prices. I know that my products were worth more but I had no other choice, just like all the other women working in the slums for shoe and shirt makers.

This experience convinced Saadia of the importance of women’s contributions to family budgets. “Do you know, when we bring money into the household it changes the way we are looked at. Women are more respected for taking part in the household finances and can then take more decisions within the family,” she says.

Saadia met the NEF team in 2006, and eagerly took the opportunity to mobilize women in slums to create an artisans’ cooperative. She was quickly chosen for the presidency of the cooperative given her profile, her capacity and leadership abilities. Despite her family obligations she has taken modern and traditional sewing lessons, which she is currently replicating for other cooperative members. She has provided assistance to all the training workshops organized by the local governance project, focusing on administrative and financial management, and trained in project start-up so that she would be prepared to manage the cooperative.

Saadia is now firmly convinced of the success of the endeavor. “It is true that in the beginning, while the cooperative was being created some men underestimated women and said that this would not last. You have to know how to fight back and to develop know how,” she says.

To promote the cooperative’s success and visibility, Saadia asked its members to organize an exhibition in June 2007, which proved to be a great success. Thanks to her will and courage, this ambitious woman has been able to set an example and give hope to other women in the slums.