Morocco is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts of the last forty years, which greatly compromises the current agricultural campaign.
“That’s it, we released our animals there”. The two hectares of wheat cultivated by Hicham, a young farmer who lives near the rural town of Laghdira (El Jadida Province), has lost all hope of a harvest after fifty days without rain. Knowing his doomed harvest, he prefers to release his dozen sheep in his cereal fields. Small consolation for this small farmer who invested large sums of money last fall, particularly in inputs, and who knows that he will not harvest a single bale of straw at the end of the season as his crops have arrived. at an advanced stage of decay.
“The situation is serious,” cowards for his part Abdelkader Kindil, president of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Casablanca-Settat region. Asked by H24info, the man does not hide his dismay at the situation experienced by millions of farmers in Morocco, the vast majority of whom live exclusively from the rain through cereal or fodder crops. Proof of the seriousness of the situation, Kindil admits that Morocco is currently experiencing “the worst drought since 1981”.
The lack of rain affects the majority of crops (cereals, legumes, market gardening) including irrigated crops. “Groundwaters are also affected by the lack of rainfall. We can see it everywhere, the wells are running out one after the other”, Kindil is alarmed.
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How can this glaring lack of precipitation be explained? The Azores High, responds the National Meteorological Department. “The low rainfall observed during this winter season in Morocco and southern Europe is due to a set of unfavorable meteorological and climatic conditions, underlined Lhoussaine Youabd, in charge of the communication service at the National Meteorology Department (DMN).
“The meteorological situation was characterized during this winter period by the presence of the Azores anticyclone, an area of high atmospheric pressure located in the North Atlantic Ocean and which extends over southern Europe, l western Mediterranean basin and Morocco. This situation has influenced the meteorological conditions of this season favoring the predominance of stable, calm and generally dry weather”, specifies the same source, adding that the centered position of the Azores anticyclone on the near Atlantic and the Mediterranean basin, “pushes most of the atmospheric disturbances, generating rain towards the North and the British Isles as well as towards Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East”.
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“We note that the average cumulative rainfall recorded at the national level from September 1, 2021 to January 31, 2022 is 38.8 mm, against a climatological normal of 106.8 mm calculated over the same period between 1981 and 2010, i.e. a deficit of 64%. The deficit compared to the previous season 2020-2021 is 53%,” Youabd also noted.
The drought actually affects the whole of the Maghreb and southern Europe. Spain and Portugal also record a worrying lack of precipitation for this winter period. In Morocco, the authorities are still hoping that the rain will fall on the country even if the damage is largely already done. “If it rains by the end of February, the rains could have a saving impact, if only on pastures, which will provide fodder for animal feed,” hopes Abdelkader Kindil.
Agriculture employs nearly half of Moroccans. This section of the population is about to experience a critical situation if the State does not come to their aid. The Ministry of Agriculture has multiplied meetings in recent days to find ways to help farmers, but also breeders, to reduce their losses. “We plan to distribute, on March 10, subsidized barley to help breeders cope with the scarcity of pasture and the high cost of industrial feed,” reassures the framework of the Ministry of Agriculture. Not sure that this measure is enough to relieve a peasant world which, in addition to drought, is suffering the brunt of multidimensional inflation.