Rabat – Participants of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) webinar voted a Moroccan digital solution Attaissir (“Tighten”) as the best innovation for the protection of farmers and vulnerable groups in the face of COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Cosumar Group, a leading manufacturer of white sugar in Morocco, created Attaisir with a Moroccan startup in 2019 to respond to challenges of cultivating and harvesting sugar crops, particularly sugar cane and beet.
By digitizing the processes of cultivation and harvesting, the innovation facilitates the management of key stages of cultivation. Cosumar estimates that 80,000 of its strategic partners—farmers growing the sugar plants—benefit from the initiative.
Attaisir came into existence under the Green Morocco Plan, a country-wide agricultural strategy dating back to 2008. The plan aims to boost agriculture to the position of the main growth engine of the national economy and contribute to GDP growth, job creation, and reducing poverty.
After the introduction of the state of health emergency on March 20, Attaisir’s functionalities allowed for remote monitoring of a fleet of more than 2,000 GPS-linked agricultural machines. The system ensured a continuous supply of the national sugar market while minimizing the risk of contamination and strictly respecting the social distancing rules.
The Agency for Agricultural Development of Morocco (ADA) intends to use Attaisir as inspiration for transforming other agricultural projects to allow small farmers to benefit from agricultural digitalization. Digitalization occupies a prominent place in the “Generation Green” strategy for the agricultural sector, aimed for development in the years 2020-2030.
Attaisir came first out of seven other projects from the MENA region in the FAO-organized webinar devoted to innovative initiatives regarded as tools to protect farmers against negative externalities of the COVID-19-induced crisis.
