2024-02-16 12:00:48
This workshop was an opportunity to highlight Morocco’s progress and perspectives in the sustainability of Moroccan agriculture.
Challenges: Ensuring an agricultural transition towards sustainable food systems. This is the main area covered during the workshop organized on February 15, 2024 in Rabat. This meeting organized by CropLife Morocco and CropLife Africa Middle East was an opportunity to shine the spotlight on the major challenges currently facing agriculture and to highlight avenues for reflection on the actions to be taken in the context of drought. and climate challenges.
Moroccan agriculture has undergone profound change over the last two decades. Currently, its transition to sustainable food systems constitutes a real challenge due to several constraints including the context of drought, water scarcity and climate change.
To ensure this transformation, the entire agricultural ecosystem is concerned. “We must change our way of producing food towards sustainable production models”, indicates the Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Redouane Arrach, during the meeting which took place on February 15, 2024 in Rabat under the theme “Promoting the transition of Moroccan agriculture towards sustainable food systems: from theory to action”. Organized by CropLife Morocco and CropLife Africa-Middle East, this workshop was an opportunity to highlight Morocco’s progress and perspectives in the sustainability of Moroccan agriculture.
The SG of the Ministry of Agriculture returned to the improvement in productivity experienced by Morocco in the agricultural sector thanks to the strategy deployed by the Kingdom. He recalled the major transformations that the sector is experiencing, including the establishment of social protection and support for the young generation of farmers.
For the SG of the Ministry of Agriculture, the transformation of food systems is aligned with the Generation Green strategy. In this regard, he cites the need to invest in human capital which includes several elements including training, occupational health and social protection. “We should not think that sustainable processing only concerns food products (…). It’s an ecosystem that includes farms, families, etc.,” he explains. For her part, Samira Amellal, Managing Director of CropLife Africa Middle East, highlighted that “although our farmers have a remarkable capacity to adapt to changes, they also need appropriate tools to do so. At CropLife we are convinced that this can be achieved through the use of technological and innovative solutions in the agricultural field, as well as cooperation between the public and private sector in order to establish a necessary legislative framework, based on science”.
For his part, Mohamed Chetouani, president of CropLife Morocco and Country Manager North & West Africa at BASF, noted: “Agriculture plays a central role in Morocco’s economy. However, it faces many challenges and we believe that cooperation between the different actors in the food value chain is a key element to achieving our objectives.
The organizers of this meeting also recall that today the sustainability of Moroccan agricultural exports to Europe is confronted with the measures of the European Union’s Green Deal which have led to considerable pressure on the production and trade of agri-food products in the Morocco, in particular by imposing restrictions on the use of certain active substances in plant protection products.
“Consequently, Moroccan farmers now find themselves unable to use several plant protection products for crops intended for export to the European Union. This situation reduces their range of solutions and leaves them alone in the face of the country’s specific climate challenges,” indicates the same source. He added: “Meanwhile, exemptions are regularly granted to certain EU countries. Between 2019 and 2022, exemptions were notably granted for prohibited plant protection products (57 exemptions for thiamethoxam, 48 for diquat, 30 for 1,3 dichloropropene, etc.). It is clear that any decision to withdraw active substances from PPPs taken at the European Union level led to a similar position being taken in Morocco. However, the exemption system does not exist in Morocco. Consequently, the number of approved active substances saw a reduction of 10.5%.
Between 2017 and 2023, it went from 326 to 292 in our country. In terms of losses, the current and possible withdrawals of plant protection products suggest significant effects, according to the organizers of this meeting who cite research carried out in this direction. “It turns out that these can reach 5% for cereals, 53% for legumes, 20% for sugar and 30% for olive oil. These alterations were also materialized in 2023 by watermelon, for example, where many productions did not reach their maturity or the desired size due to exceptional infestations of aphids and viruses in the Loukkos region. The second example is that of potatoes in the same region, where attacks of late blight in March 2023 caused losses estimated at 25% in early sowing and heterogeneity in sizes.
This is the title of the box
Strengthening agricultural sectors
Recommendations
To maintain its position as an agricultural exporter and major trading partner in several international markets, it is essential that Morocco continues to develop and strengthen its agricultural sectors. In this sense, CropLife Morocco and CropLife Africa-Middle East advocate for an agricultural green transition localized in Morocco, which takes into account the geographical, climatic and economic characteristics of the country, while promoting an increase in agricultural productivity and thus providing positive contribution to the local economy.
“Several key elements for the success of this transition have been identified, such as the need for sufficient transition periods for farmers when withdrawing plant protection products from the market, or the granting of emergency exemptions which would allow the use temporary of a PPP in particular circumstances, like the cases of several EU countries,” concludes the same source.
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