Drought forces Moroccan farmers to sell livestock, stop planting

Water scarcity and drought forced some beet farmers not to cultivate the lands this season in Morocco, while other villagers were compelled to sell their livestock.

“Villagers around the globe are facing a crucial problem due to the drought crisis, which shrouded the agricultural season in Morocco this year amid shortage of rainfalls over the past few months, endangering their agricultural crops,” Hassam el-Hashady, a member of the Moroccan Association for Agricultural Development, told Jusoor Post. He added that beet crops have been affected and some villages were forced not to cultivate beets.

As a result of the deficit in beet cultivation due to climate change impacts since last year, the volume of white sugar production in Morocco decreased by about 26 percent in 2021, compared to the previous agricultural season, according to COSUMAR, a sugar production company, Moroccan newspaper Hespress reported on December 2, 2021.

In addition, “several villagers were forced to sell their livestock due to the water scarcity, which led to a shortage in the agricultural production,” Hashady added.

He continued that the lack of rainwater affected the amount of water in the dams’ reservoirs, and thus affected water allocated for agriculture, as rainwater declined by 61 percent this year compared to normal years.

The water in dams as of April 2022 did not exceed 34.1 percent, compared to 50.82 percent in the same period last year, stated Moroccan Minister of Equipment and Water Nizar Baraka on April 14.

In response, the Moroccan Royal Court announced in February allocating 10 billion dirhams ($1.07 billion) for a national plan to mitigate the effects of drought on farmers and the economy. The financial plan aims to manage water, help farmers and agricultural insurance, and finance operations to supply the market with wheat and livestock fodder.

“The frequency of droughts and the pace of land degradation are indeed a major challenge. Over the past twenty years, these phenomena have impacted more than 1.5 billion people worldwide, causing more than $124 billion worth of economic losses. In Africa, millions of hectares are threatened by desertification due to the encroaching desert, which in some areas is spreading at a rate of five kilometers a year. Land degradation is also a multiplier of vulnerabilities,” said Moroccan King Mohammed VI in a speech at the Summit of Heads of State and Government on Drought and Sustainable Land Management on May 9.

Morocco had drawn up a plan for the supply of potable water and irrigation water over the period from 2020 to 2027, at a cost of $12 billion, which includes projects to pump groundwater in villages, Hespress reported.

In comments to Jusoor Post, Jalil Daoudi, a member of the Moroccan Chamber of Agriculture, said the shortage of rainwater has tremendously affected farmers, especially in areas cultivated with grains, affirming that the farmers are trying to mitigate the situation to stay in their lands by keeping small amounts of grains from the previous season to live on.

Commenting on the sale of livestock, he noted that the government has provided farmers with the fodder necessary for their animals, assuring that due to the government’s “strong” subsidy, farmers were able to keep livestock.

“Today we have 1.2 billion people living in drylands. FAO promotes a shift to cost-effective, proactive and integrated approaches to drought management,” said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo on Twitter on Friday in observance of the 2022 World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.

❝Today we have 1.2 billion people living in drylands. @FAO promotes a shift to cost-effective, proactive and integrated approaches to #drought management❞ – @MariaLenasemedo @FAO Deputy DG at the 2022 Desertification and Drought Day observance event in Madrid.#UNited4Land pic.twitter.com/s3TLKk5h2K

— UN Convention to Combat Desertification (@UNCCD) June 17, 2022

Meanwhile, Executive Director of United Nations Environment Program Inger Andersen tweeted that “droughts have increased by 30 percent” in one generation, adding that “this cannot be the legacy we leave to future generations.”