Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is expecting the added value of the country’s agriculture sector to drop by 14% by the end of this year.
In particular, the drop in added value will cause a decline amounting to 1.8 points in agriculture growth, the ministry said, attributing the downbeat development to the low final production of main cereals in Morocco this season, as well as the suboptimal performance of fruit trees, vegetables, and spring yields.
In a communique released on Monday, the ministry reported a sharp decrease in cereals production as part of the 2021-2022 agriculture campaign.
Due to drought, the final production of Morocco’s main cereals dropped to 34 quintals in the current agricultural season — with the number representing a decrease of 67% compared to the previous campaign.
By comparison, Morocco recorded a production level of 103.2 million quintals during the 2020-21 agricultural season.
The ministry also recalled the country’s dire rainfall situation this season, saying that the amount of heavy rainfall reached 199 millimeters at the end of May, which accounted for a 44% decrease compared to the 30-year average (355 millimeters).
The number notably represents a decline of 34% compared to the previous campaign (303 millimeters) during the same period, the ministry said.
With Morocco experiencing what both the government and other observers have described as the worst drought to have hit the North African kingdom in three decades, local authorities across the country are increasingly turning to water rationing to tackle the crisis.
The goal of this policy of water control, a Casablanca municipal official said over last weekend, is to help mitigate the impact of the water scarcity Morocco is now facing. “We are facing a water emergency situation, the stored water is insufficient, we must take care of the resources we have,” he explained.
Agriculture is one of the essential sectors of Morocco’s economy, contributing to the country’s GDP by 11.68% in 2020, according to the data website Statista.
In a report published earlier this month, Morocco’s Higher Commission for Planning (HCP) documented that the agriculture sector held the second highest employment rate — behind the services sector — in the North African country by the end of the second quarter of this year.
While the services sector employed 46.8% of Moroccans in the first six months of 2022, 30.8% worked in agriculture-related businesses, the report found.
