A recent report by the Swiss Re Institute highlighted the key challenges facing Morocco’s agricultural sector, noting that “the kingdom regularly suffers from concurrent heatwaves and droughts that have caused severe water crises.”
The report pointed out that “insurance payouts over the past decade have helped increase Moroccan farmers’ resilience by partially compensating for the losses they incur.”
It went on to explain that “Moroccan agriculture employs a significant portion of the country’s workforce, particularly in rural areas where cereal crop production dominates Morocco’s arable land, with a heavy reliance on rainfall.”
The same source noted that “drought has led to a near quarter reduction in the classified area for winter crops this season compared to previous years.”
It also highlighted that “the winter crop season coincided with commodity price shocks and rising inflation, leading to increased agricultural input costs.”
Future climate forecasts are not optimistic particularly regarding “greenhouse gas emission scenarios, where the rate in the Mediterranean region exceeds the global average,” it added.
The report indicated that wheat dominates crop production in the country, being cultivated on over 3 million hectares of arable land, making it one of Morocco’s main crops.
The same source indicated that “the agricultural insurance sector in Morocco is the second largest in Africa, with farmers primarily covered by multi-risk crop insurance compensation-based programs, offered through a successful partnership between the public and private sectors, especially for smallholder farmers.”
The Swiss Re Institute noted that “the Moroccan government has already taken several positive steps in this area,” emphasizing that “reforming crop insurance schemes can also help maintain insurability in areas highly exposed to climate factors.”
The Moroccan government has also implemented “encouraging measures to improve infrastructure and water management efficiency.”
These measures include, for example, “building large dams to enhance the country’s water storage capacity, improving the interconnection between water basins, and installing control valves to reduce water losses through transmission and distribution.”
The same source mentioned the government’s support for farmers under the Green Morocco Plan and the Green Generation Plan, aimed at “modernizing and improving irrigation efficiency by financing the installation of drip irrigation systems that can help access groundwater.”
The report also emphasized that modernizing and adopting technological innovations in the field is crucial for enhancing agriculture’s climate adaptability.
It noted that many Moroccan farmers still use crop varieties that are over 20 years old. Therefore, they should be supported in adopting new local strains or switching to suitable alternative crops for the local climate and soil conditions.
The Swiss Re Institute concluded that Morocco’s diverse crop landscape is vulnerable to frequent droughts.
Maintaining traditional compensation for stable areas and providing different insurance for highly affected regions could be a solution, emphasized the report.
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