Morocco Secures €199 million AfDB Loan to Boost Cereal Production

Rabat – The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday approved a €199 million (MAD 2.1 billion) loan to finance Morocco’s Competitive and Resilient Cereal Development Support Program (PADCRC) in an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on cereal imports.

Initiated as part of the African Emergency Food Production Facility, the loan is set to improve the efficiency and climate resilience of Moroccan cereal production to preserve domestic food security and cut rising import bills.

“In sum, the project will value and create more jobs for rural youth and women,” said AfDB Country Manager for Morocco Achraf Hassan Tarsim. He added that the loan is expected to increase cereal productivity by 50%, while reducing cereal imports by 20% by 2030 and boosting farmers’ incomes.

Welcoming the bank’s partnership with Morocco, Director of the Agriculture and Agribusiness Department at the continental bank Martin Fregene said “we share a strong ambition to strengthen the performance of the cereal sector and consolidate its climate resilience through renewed governance.”

He went on to add: “Our support consolidates previous achievements which, over more than a decade, have enabled the agricultural sector to move from a production logic to a transformation dynamic, which creates many more jobs in rural areas.”

By investing in climate-resilient cereal production, Morocco is underscoring its Generation Green ambitions, which aims to foster a generation of innovative agricultural solutions to establish “resilient, growing, and eco-efficient” Moroccan agriculture with the support of local fertilizer production.

Constraints of local production

The ongoing war in Ukraine has been key in unveiling the structural unsustainability of Moroccan cereal production.

Faced with a severe drought, Morocco’s cereal production, which is not self-sufficient even in the best agricultural seasons, has dropped. This context has pushed the country to look for external suppliers amid a global shortage of cereals due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Morocco has notably turned to France and imported over one million tonnes of soft wheat this summer. French exports to Morocco are expected to stand at 4.5-5 million tonnes in 2023.

Morocco’s heavy reliance on cereal imports, particularly during drought seasons, results from limited local production of a commodity that is key to the local diet.

Given that most of the agricultural lands in the North African country are arid, the local production of cereal is expected to shrink due to the overall decrease in precipitation and moisture due to climate change.

According to agricultural experts, wheat, barley, and canola require a certain amount of moisture to initiate germination and growth. The production of the three kinds of cereal requires a sustainable water supply, either thanks to precipitation or with the support of irrigation systems. Annually, cereal crops need between 100 mm and 125 mm of water to grow. The higher the temperatures are, the more water is needed to keep the soil moist and cool for vegetative crop growth.

Given the higher costs of irrigation systems, Morocco remains reliant on precipitation for local production, and on the global wheat market to offset the supply shortage and keep cereal prices at an affordable range.