2023-05-06 17:33:15
Difficult for Aziz Akhannouch to hang up the crampons of his boots as the first interlocutor of the fellahs of the bled… He spent all the same 14 years at the head of the Department of Agriculture. Normal when the International Agricultural Show of Meknes (SIAM) – launched on the eve of his taking office and which has grown over the course of his three mandates – remains one of his favorite areas, not to mention not say his priest’s garden.
The Head of Government was therefore not going to miss the appointment of the official inauguration of the resumption of SIAM post-Covid (from May 2 to 7) and even less the highlight of the event: that of the signing of 19 program contracts with the main production sectors with its financial envelope of 110 billion dirhams, including 47% of private contribution.*
A new generation therefore of program contracts which is part of a strategic vision (itself) of the second generation for the agricultural sector. Generation Green, as we know, aims to consolidate the undeniable achievements of the Green Morocco Plan designed and piloted by the Akhannouch cabinet and which has initiated a metamorphosis of the agricultural policy of a country where it was said that “Raining is governing”.
Tangible & eloquent
The meticulously established and quantified report had moreover been presented at the 2020 deadline for this strategy, but the Head of Government did not fail to summarize in Meknes his achievements, which are as tangible as they are eloquent: Each dirham of public subsidy spent has mobilized 2.3 dirhams of private investments which totaled 79 billion dirhams; Doubling of the contribution of the agricultural sector to GDP around 14.8%; Creation of more than 35 million additional working days in rural areas; Recovery of 2 billion cubic meters of irrigation water.
Also, there was the development of plant and animal sectors so as to ensure national coverage of basic needs with rates reaching 100% for vegetables, fruits and poultry. A feat accomplished while the value of agricultural exports was multiplied by 2.7.
This assessment sounds like the best response to those who question the building of good foundations to ensure Morocco’s food sovereignty, a theme chosen for this 16th SIAM edition. “It’s a waste of time for anyone who wants to politically outbid the Green Morocco Plan… Moroccans know what has changed on their plates in recent years”, quipped Aziz Akhannouch. It’s true that those in their forties can remember, among other things, the ordeal of the availability of the “Centrale” milk carton during the Ramadans of the Nineties…
Constraints & sovereignty
The problem of food sovereignty has certainly become more acute in recent years, due to the drought (unprecedented since 1981) which forced the Executive to close the veins of irrigation on a significant part of cultivated areas. The rise in input prices at the global level has made it more difficult to supply the markets on a regular basis and to limit, as much as possible, the yoyo of the price curve.
“The government is acting through the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance, in order to reduce the cost of production for farmers and de facto, prices for the citizen”, reassures the Head of Government in this regard.
Concerning the export, he wanted to put things back in order. “We are for export, but with a well-supplied domestic market and prices of agricultural products on the domestic market within the reach of the citizen,” he insists, recalling an approach that has always been appropriate.
As proof, this recent report by a World Bank expert who maintains that Morocco did not export more than 5.2% of its agricultural water over the period 2012 – 2019. about the abuse of our “hydrauli – commercial” balance.
The human element
In these new program contracts, 27% of the incentives are intended to finance water-saving technologies for irrigation. And to sectors that have experienced disruptions in the value and production chains, special attention has been paid.
The programmed budget for the benefit of milk and red meat exceeds 26 billion dirhams, or 22% of the total budget, with the objective of increasing production by 40% and the herd of dairy cows by 216,000 heads. Ditto for the market gardening sector to which 8 billion dirhams are allocated in order to increase production by around 54%.
The interest in these sectors reflects the government’s firm desire to continue to work for their development and performance. This also embodies Generation Green’s ability to adapt to the economic situation while keeping the focus on its strategic axes which, beyond the development and modernization of the sectors, places the human element at the center of agricultural policy.
It should be remembered that this strategic plan, presented to the Sovereign in 2000, aims to promote the emergence of a new generation of middle-class peasants encompassing 350,000 families. Hence Akhannouch’s appeal to farmers to “get down to Generation Green”, just as they had done for the Green Morocco Plan. This is where the train of development of the agricultural sector and the emergence of a new rural Morocco will pass…
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