MOROCCO: Farmers in Morocco are bracing themselves for a difficult period ahead as severe frost and lack of rainfall threaten production

Record ID: 333234

  • Title: MOROCCO: Farmers in Morocco are bracing themselves for a difficult period ahead as severe frost and lack of rainfall threaten production
  • Date: 5th March 2012
  • Summary: BEN MANSOUR COMMUNE, KENITRA PROVINCE, MOROCCO (RECENT - FEBRUARY 28, 2012) (REUTERS) ROAD SIGN, READING: MECHRA BELEKSIRI, SOUK LARBAA, SOUK LETLAT & SIDI ALLAL TAZI WIDE OF A BANANA GREENHOUSE PLANTATION VARIOUS OF BANANA PLANTS DAMAGED BY THE FROST FARMERS COLLECTING DEAD LEAVES BANANA GROWER, MOHAMED JAWAD SGHIR, WITH AGRICULTURE EXPERT, ABDELKRIN NAAMAN, CHECKING DAMAGED BANANAS BANANA GROWER, MOHAMED JAWAD SGHIR, AND ABDELKRIM NAAMAN MOHAMED JAWAD SGHIR AND ABDELKRIM NAAMAN HOLDING DEAD BANANA LEAVES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) BANANA GROWER, MOHAMED JAWAD SGHIR, SAYING: "We were not expecting this loss this year yet we thank God. We ask the Agriculture Ministry to take care of the small farmers". MOULAY BOUSELHAM, KENITRA PROVINCE, MOROCCO (RECENT - FEBRUARY 28, 2012) (REUTERS) FARMER, MANSOUR MNASSRI, AND A FARM WORKER CHECKING DAMAGED POTATOES FARMER'S HAND AND THE DAMAGED POTATOES FARMER, MANSOUR MNASSRI, AND A FARM WORKER LOOKING AT DAMAGED POTATOES VARIOUS OF DAMAGED POTATOES AND DRY LEAVES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FARMER, MANSOUR MNASSRI, SAYING: "We were told that we will be compensated to the tune of 50 per cent. We were expecting this compensation to be in cash not in potatoes' seeds. Because we don't know what kind of seeds they are, we cannot plant them." VARIOUS OF DAMAGED BANANA TREES AND FRUITS
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Morocco, Morocco
  • Country: Morocco
  • Topics: Business,Environment,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVAEG4APTOEGUP0O0WFCUZBVVV8P
  • Story Text: Farmers in Morocco are bracing themselves for a difficult period ahead as an unusually long cold spell and a predicted lack of rainfall is affecting production.
    The shortage comes at a sensitive time for the North African country's $100-billion economy, which relies for 14 percent of its output on agriculture.
    The country's agriculture and fisheries ministry is still assessing the damages, but for farmers who have already lost their crops, they need help sooner rather than later.
    In the northwest Gharb region, temperatures have fallen to minus four degrees Celsius (24.8 Fahrenhrit), with the frost lasting for nearly six weeks.
    Much of the region's crops have been destroyed and the figures pose a big worry: 80 percent of the potatoes, 50 percent of the bananas, 70 percent of the avocadoes and 14,000 hectares of sugarcane. All of them have been destroyed by the frost.
    Compounding the problem is the predicted lack of rainfall.
    The annual average of rainfall in the Gharb area is 500 millilitres, but so far, the region on the Atlantic coast received no more than 220 millilitres - 44 percent compared to last year's 58 percent.
    Banana grower Mohamed Jawad Sghir is one farmer in need of help.
    The greenhouse where he plants his bananas has not been spared from the cold. The fruits which have survived have been damaged, making it impossible to sell.
    "We were not expecting this loss this year yet we thank God. We ask the Agriculture Ministry to take care of the small farmer," Sghir said as he surveys his greenhouse full of dried banana trunks and leaves.
    While waiting for the government to come up with a rescue plan, Sghir has turned to planting green peppers to recoup his loses.
    Potatoes have been hardest hit.
    The local office of the Agriculture Ministry says that 1,400 hectares were affected but farmers insist the area hit is bigger than that.
    To minimise the impact, the government has decided to give them new potato seeds.
    But seasoned potato growers like Mansour Mnassri think there is a better way of helping farmers like him.
    "We were told that we will be compensated to the tune of 50 per cent. We were expecting this compensation to be in cash not in potatoes' seeds. Because we don't know what kind of seeds they are, we cannot plant them," Mnassiri said.
    Agriculture is an important sector in the Moroccan economy and employs more people than any other sectors.
    It is also a sensitive and a strategic sector that benefits from a special interest.
    In a recent news conference, Mustapha Khalfi, the country's information minister and government spokesman, repeated the commitment to help the farmers.
    "There is an intensive activity at the level of the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry to address this problem particularly in the Gharb region were 7000 hectares will benefit from the government's measures. Also, the next budget will comprise a series of measures to tackle this problem," said Khalfi.
    Lawmakers have echoed the government's commitment to help.
    The powerful productive sector committee in the House of Representatives is due to meet with the agriculture ministry to see how best to tackle the problem.
    Even if the government subsidises the most important products such as bread and sugar, the prices of all the other products including fruits and vegetables may rise sharply and affect the purchasing power of the consumers.
    "The Agriculture Minister agreed that he will have a meeting with the productive sectors committee at the House of Representatives to discuss the current situation in the agriculture sector and to see what kind of measures should be taken. These measures should be implemented urgently," said Said Chbatou, head of the parliament's productive sector committee.
    Compounding the situation is the fact that most farmers do not have insurance policies.
    Small farmers who are fatalist by nature rarely take insurance to protect their livelihood. The few who do, end up with an insurance with minimal cover.
    "Insurance in agriculture must include all the crops including vegetables and sugar canes as well as fruit trees. Also, farmers should be made aware of the climate changes so that they could use the appropriate techniques such as night watering and should also be made aware of the use of hormones and acid products," said Abdelkrin Naaman, an agriculture expert who is close to farmers in the Gharb area.
    While waiting for the government's help, local farmers in the Gharb area are taking a leaf from the Arab Spring and are asking for change.
    They say people who represent them in the cooperatives and local associations should go because they do not represent the interests of the farmers.
    Larbi Lahmine who saw his sugarcane field completely ravaged by the frost is angry.
    "First, we ask the government to support us because we are in a disaster area. Second, we ask for change. The local representatives should go away. I mean those local people who represent us in the various fields associated to agriculture in the Gharb area in general and in Dar El Gueddari in particular. They are not aware of the current disaster. They must go and let us take our responsibilities and our own decisions," he said.
    While they wait for a better harvest next year, Moroccan farmers are left waiting for the government to come up with concrete measures that will help alleviate their suffering and compensate them for their losses.
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