Morocco

Moroccan Union of Agriculture

Agriculture in Morocco

Cereals :

Cereals in Morocco occupies, 5.000.000 ha , over 50 percent of which are dedicated to the production of barley , particularly in semi-arid and mountainous or low fertility areas , based on the moderately profitable landraces according to the traditional methods, which affects the national average cost of cereals. In addition, wheat occupies about 1.8 million hectares , while durum wheat occupies 800.000 hectares. Production remains dependent on climatic conditions and varies between 50 million quintals in seasons with reduced rainfall amount, and 100 during the regular season and abundant precipitation.

Legume :

Legume crop occupies in the statement of the 2011/2012 season an area of 326 100 hectares , of which 56% for the bean. That agriculture plays an important role in the agricultural cycle, and soil enrichment, reducing pollution and groundwater contamination. The total quantity produced during that season is 2.26 million cwt, dont 64% of beans.

The total area of the country

71 million hectares

The harvested area

8.71 million hectares, 13%

Irrigated area

1.47 million hectares

Pastures

21 million hectares

Different cultures occupy areas with variable proportion of the total agricultural area used, as follows :

  • Cereal : 55%
  • Legumes:14%
  • Forage crops :14%
  • Industrial crops :5%
  • Vegetables:3%
  • Fruit trees :4%
  • Pastures :17%

Morocco has a ready to be exploited water supply, according to the current technical and economic conditions; it is 20 billion cubic meters of water, 16 of which are superficial and 4 sare groundwater. This significant amount could not have been stored without dams’ policy that the country has adopted for a long time ago.
Upon arrival of “The Green Morocco” plan, the state has worked to rationalize the use of water and increase the irrigated surface by motivating decisions in this area :
100% financing of costs resulting from the use of drip irrigation for farms that do not exceed 5 hectares, or those that enter within the framework of the grouping policy. The objective is to transform the exploitation of 550 thousand hectares of perimeters irrigated at present by conventional methods into drip irrigation in the horizons of  2020.

The Moroccan agriculture is considered to be the main sector that provides 78% of employment opportunitiesin rural areas and of the total workforce. .

Contribution of Agricultural Sector in GDP

The Agricultural sector contributes to the Gross Domestic Product by a rate which varies between 19 and 21%, and through coordination between the State and the various professional efforts, the total agricultural production recorded a significant increase since 2000, then with the advent of the new agricultural strategy, which brought agriculture to its role original role, as the main engine of the national economy, agricultural GDP increased from 75 billion dirham little before 2008 to 100 billion dirham in 2012

Although Morocco exports several of its farm produces and food, it also depends on the import for certain products, in order to cover its needs. We mention among the most important imports, which represent a big burden for the balance of payments, the cereal, which represent about 38% in 2012.

The value of the agricultural exports are counted by billions of dirham during the last five years.
The agricultural exports represent between 15 and 21 % of the total national exports.