SKOURA (Morocco): Near the bustling market in Skoura, a windswept town in the shadow of Morocco’s snow-capped High Atlas mountains, Ait Ali Oumer Mohammad ponders his future over a sugary mint tea.
“My father tells me I don’t do my job properly, that I’m lazy,” says the 32-year-old farmer. “But I tell him all I need is water.”
After years of drought, the wells are almost dry in the valley where the Moroccan’s family has grown olives, almonds and corn for 30 years, and a tough decision beckons.
“If there’s no water, I’ll have to become a shepherd,” he says. “It’ll be hard at first, but we don’t have much choice.”
Less than a seventh of Morocco’s cultivated land is irrigated and the fortunes of millions of people — and the wider economy — still depend on the unpredictable rains.
King Mohammed has overseen a flurry of initiatives to bring the most isolated outposts into the mainstream economy, reduce poverty and improve health and living standards.
But a rare recent report on the state of the North African kingdom after 50 years of independence said people in rural areas — especially women — had been largely left out of the process of development and modernization.
The report, supervised by top government economic adviser Abdelaziz Belfkih, urged that these problems be addressed.
Despite reforms to make Morocco’s economic welfare less dependent on agriculture, farming accounts for 14 per cent of the $49 billion economy and employs 40 per cent of the workforce.
“Agriculture, however inefficient, is the livelihood for a large number of Moroccans and they need all the help they can get,” says George Joffe, North Africa expert at Cambridge University’s International Studies Centre.
On the dry, rugged Sarhro, between the High Atlas and the Sahara, farming is a hit-and-miss affair even in good years.
Rain clouds that soak the fertile northern plains often disperse as they pass south and farmers rely on wells.
Agriculture is only possible in narrow, isolated valleys where fertile soil has been deposited over the centuries. Plots shaded by palm trees are divided into neat grids using small walls of earth to retain moisture.
No one starves but often people can feed only their families. Many rely on money sent home by sons who have migrated to Marrakesh, Casablanca, Spain or France.—Reuters
