Rabat – Al Moutmir, an initiative seeking to boost agriculture yield, has reported significant success in the 2022-23 agricultural campaign.
Spearheaded by Morocco’s phosphate giant OCP Group, the program implemented over 3,600 platforms dedicated to showcasing best practices for cultivating cereals and vegetables in 27 provinces.
According to OCP, the Demonstration Platforms (PFD) helped more than 700 farmers directly, while approximately 7,000 others received indirect support through various programs such as field schools, training sessions, and live events.
The platforms are designed to provide farmers with hands-on experience and knowledge sharing, ultimately enhancing agricultural productivity and efficiency, OCP says. The results of the campaign have been impressive.
The cereal demonstration platforms achieved an average grain yield of 24.1 quintals per hectare, a remarkable 34% increase compared to control plots, which yielded an average of 18.5 quintals per hectare.
Likewise, the vegetable Demonstration Platforms showcased a notable improvement, with an average yield of 11 quintals per hectare, as opposed to the 9 quintals per hectare recorded by the control plots.
The impact of the PFDs extended beyond grain yield improvements. Organic yield results were equally impressive, with the cereal platforms recording an average yield of 46.7 quintals per hectare, showing a 32% gain over the control plots’ average yield of 35.4 quintals per hectare.
For vegetables, the PFDs demonstrated an increase of approximately 25%, yielding an average of 22.8 quintals per hectare compared to 18.2 quintals per hectare for the control plots.
These results were presented during the 12th annual Al Moutmir Open Innovation Lab, an event that gathered over 150 participants, including researchers, scientists, economists, agronomists, and farmers among others.
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