The agriculture sector is a very important economic sector in Morocco. Its performance is conditioned with significant variations from year to year depending on climatic conditions, and even those of the economy as a whole: the country’s growth rate is strongly correlated with that of agricultural production. Agriculture furthermore remains the country’s main provider of employment, far ahead of other economic sectors, with 40% of the active population living from this sector.
The Moroccan agricultural policy is oriented toward export rather than self-sufficiency, which generates strong pressure on water resources. “The water scarcity situation in Morocco is alarming since its water resources are estimated at less than 650 m3/inhabitant/year, compared with 2,500 m3 in 1960, and should fall below 500 m3 by 2030,” notes the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), calling on the government to “undertake urgent measures.”
It should be known that agriculture is an essential priority for this kingdom. It represents 20% of GDP. For this reason, the kingdom put in place in 2008 the Plan Maroc Vert (PMV).
How does the agricultural priority present itself in Morocco?
After independence in 1956, Morocco placed it at the heart of national development. It pursued an ambitious agricultural policy for nearly half a century while having to take into account the natural constraints of its territory and the profound socio-economic transformations of the country.
Faced with rising food prices, Morocco must confront this issue because it should not be forgotten that food supply is partly international. Morocco is a large consumer of cereals, and the average household expenditure on food of a Moroccan household represents nearly 50% of its income. Therefore any inflation will have a direct impact on consumption and on the social and economic structure of the population of the Cherifian Kingdom. Facing this risk, Morocco is very vigilant to any variation in prices.
Since the 2007/2008 crisis, the kingdom has elevated agriculture to the rank of national priority.
Given the food challenge and the political instabilities, its food security had to rely on a skilful and controlled combination of local production and indispensable supplements purchased internationally, since one cannot produce everything in Morocco. At the same time, it was necessary in the Kingdom to strengthen the inclusion of rural populations in growth and to make up for several development lags that still affected the inland and agricultural regions.
All these dynamics resulted in the launch of the Plan Maroc Vert (PMV). This long-term strategy, which counts on the strong support of the King Mohammed VI, aims to modernize agriculture and develop the rural areas. To do so, the PMV is based on two distinct but complementary pillars: capitalist and export-oriented farms (first pillar with high added value and principally economic in nature); the solidarity support of small-scale agriculture (second pillar with a more social vocation). This plan aimed for three objectives: the doubling of agricultural GDP and income, and the creation of 1.5 million jobs in the sector.
In Morocco, agriculture today represents 20% of GDP and is a key engine of growth, 40% of total employment (80% in rural areas) and provides a direct or indirect income to 15 million people (i.e. more than 40% of the Kingdom’s population).
The PMV rests on a guiding principle: the country must produce everything it can and import everything that is necessary.
The PMV has made it possible to increase the average GDP in the agricultural sector by more than 5%. It is a success that must endure and evolve with the sector in the face of climatic and international constraints.
The ambition of the PMV for the future is to improve agricultural incomes more intensively, to develop a strategy that attracts and includes youth more, and to better develop rural life.
The success of the PMV in Morocco arouses much interest among African countries. Countries like Gabon and Senegal are in turn putting in place Green Plans.
Morocco is heavily involved in the African continent:
The country, with African geography and sharing common cultural and religious traits with the continent, is reinvesting in the arenas of multilateral dialogue through its recent return to the Organisation of African Unity, from which it had been absent for 32 years, and plays an increasing role in the continent’s development and the resolution of its conflicts (Libya, Mali, G5 Sahel).
Moroccan company investments in West Africa are multiplying, but also in the Horn of Africa, as illustrated in Ethiopia by projects carried out by the Office chérifien des phosphates (OCP). There are also scientific and university exchanges, technical training, climate initiatives (such as the establishment of the Triple A Foundation following the COP22 held in Marrakech at the end of 2016), not to mention the banks and logistics projects that feed this cooperation between Morocco and many African countries. Agricultural and food issues are unavoidable stakes in these internal dynamics in Africa.
Morocco is the only country, along with Jordan, to benefit from advanced status in the agricultural sector with the EU, and enjoys an important action plan.
Today Morocco is intensifying its investment in agriculture and continues its rise in this sector.
