The Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Waters and Forests, Mohammed Sadiki, officially launched on Saturday the works for the construction of the National Argan Center (CNA) and which will be carried out at a cost total of 35 million DH, while the work should last ten months.
Implemented by the National Agency for the Development of Oasis and Argan Zones (ANDZOA), the CNA promises to be a real platform for heritage interpretation, convergence and coordination of research and management of knowledge in order to ensure optimal support for the sector and the players. In perfect synergy and complementarity with the attributions of ANDZOA, the argan program contract, the RBA framework plan, and the missions of the other institutional partners, the CNA’s main objective is to structure and channel all the efforts related to the argan tree in order to ensure sustainable governance of the argan sector.
The CNA includes three components which constitute a variation of the missions and attributions assigned to it, namely: the interpretation unit of the heritage of the argan tree to enhance and promote the tangible and intangible natural and cultural heritage of the argan tree, the scientific research encouragement unit to guide and support the convergence of scientific research on the argan tree and the argan tree, and the knowledge management unit which will carry out a strategic and technological watch. This center materializes the commitments of the State with the interprofession within the framework of the program contract for the establishment of a center of skills dedicated to the argan tree.
It will channel the efforts of all the scientific and professional actors of the Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve. This structure will position itself as a center for the promotion of the cultural heritage of the argan tree and support for research of excellence. Transplantation of the adult argan tree: The experiment launched by ANDZOA and Lafarge-Holcim Morocco will be duplicated at the national level Mr. Sadiki also visited on Saturday the area for transplanting adult argan trees in the commune of Tidssi in Taroudant. Indeed, ANDZOA, in collaboration with LafargeHolcim Morocco and AgroTechSouss Massa, initiated in 2019 a research project to develop the technique best suited to the transplantation of adult argan trees within the Agadir-Souss cement plant of LafargeHolcim. Morocco. This experiment aims to reconcile the preservation of this endemic resource of Morocco and the economic development of the Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve. Existing argan trees in areas intended for economic activities in the argan grove have been moved to plantation sites where the trees can be saved and continue to grow. This first world experience of transplanting adult argan trees was carried out as part of a research project, over 3 distinct periods for 2 years (winter, spring and summer) and this by testing two pre-treatment techniques (watering and the encirclement).
This allowed a mastery of the possible techniques and the conditions of success. Preliminary results show a success rate of 70%. At the end of this research, a guide on good practices for transplanting the adult argan tree will be published and the results of the research project will be shared. This first successful experience should make it possible to duplicate this approach for future economic development projects within the argan forest and thus contribute to the protection of this world heritage. Argan development plan: The sector aims to reach 10,000 t by 2030 Mr. Sadiki chaired a working meeting in Agadir on Friday with professionals in the sector, during which presentation of the results of the 2011-2020 program contract signed between the government and the sector’s inter-professional organization as well as the development plan for the argan sector by 2030, as part of the new Generation Green strategy.
This new development plan for the sector aims to double the production of argan oil by 2030 to reach 10,000 t, to increase the packaging rate of argan oil from 20% to 50%, to develop argan cultivation over an area of 50,000 ha as well as to rehabilitate the forest argan tree over an area of approximately 400,000 ha. The Minister insisted on the importance of the organization of the interprofession for the successful implementation of this development plan and asked for the reinforcement of the presence of women’s cooperatives in the various colleges of the interprofession, particularly in the college which represents the upstream part of the sector. He also called for the adoption of an aggregation model for this sector which allows a better sharing of value between all operators in the value chain.