Morocco’s recent heavy rainfall and snowfall have positively impacted the current agricultural season and improved production prospects, Ahmed El Bouari, the minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water, and Forests, said on Monday.
Speaking at Morocco’s Lower House, El Bouari said the precipitation recorded since mid-November has had a particularly positive impact on cereal crops, vegetables, and fruit trees, while also improving grazing conditions, Morocco’s Press Agency (MAP) reported.
Rainfall stood at around 360 mm, an increase of 54% from the 30-year annual average and 215% from the same period last season.
Water dams reserves for agriculture reached 8.22 billion cubic meters, with a fill rate of nearly 58%, up from 25% last year.
Total dam reserves, including those for drinking water, reached about 10.26 billion cubic meters, with a fill rate of 61%, from less than 28% a year earlier.
Regarding the progress of the agricultural season, El Bouari said the cultivated area reached 4.5 million hectares, about 10% of which is irrigated, with mechanization levels at 95%. The area planted with major autumn crops exceeded 4 million hectares, a 40% increase from last season.
This includes around 3.7 million hectares of cereals, 430,000 hectares of forage crops, 113,000 hectares of food legumes, and 44,500 hectares of sugar crops. Sugar crops recorded a 24% increase from the previous season.
The minister said direct seeding covered 215,000 hectares, up 27% from last season, with the purchase of 150 new seed sowing drill machines, bringing the total distributed to agricultural cooperatives to around 500.
For vegetables, 100,000 hectares of autumn vegetables have been planted, with an expected total production of 2.1 million tons, an increase of 300,000 tons from last season.
Winter vegetable cultivation is expected to cover 68,000 hectares, ensuring supply to national markets from February to June, particularly during the month of Ramadan, the minister added.
Fruit tree production has also improved, with citrus output estimated at around 1.9 million tons, up 24%. Olive production is expected to reach about 2 million tons, an increase of 106%. Date production is estimated at 160,000 tons, up 55% from the previous agricultural season.
As part of the national livestock herd restructuring program, 1.13 million beneficiaries have received support so far, with a total budget of MAD 5.3 billion. Disbursements will continue until the end of February, with preparations underway to launch the second phase of the program in April.
Rephrase in a different way as if you were a native American speaker as a content creation expert and do not talk about yourself or your experience in the text and do not show yourself as an artificial intelligence who wrote and fill the bullet point in the topic and speak the heart of the topic itself and dont take date of blog in ther first and dont take text like box of newsliter subscribe on post from content and romove all linke insert in content and and remove all affiliate disclosure phrases on content like this “This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links that allow us to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our Disclosure Policy for more info” and “#” put in its place bullet point, and romove name of the web site or his links we are take a content from our new creation
