Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture announced on Friday the establishment of a crop rotation program on an area of 5.8 million hectares for its 2020/2021 agricultural campaign.
The program takes into account the situation of water resources and the evolution of climatic conditions in the fall season, the ministry said.
The ploughing project will prioritize cereal seeds, cereals, food legumes, fodder crops, sugar crops, and market gardening in all agricultural regions across Morocco.
For vegetable crops, the ministry will implement a program to ensure a normal supply of the domestic market and to respond to the increase in exports of market garden products.
The strategy aims to guarantee the products’ balance between supply and demand.
The total programmed market garden area amounts to 105,000 hectares, and the expected production will cover consumption needs for these products from January to May as well as exports, particularly for tomatoes.
The agriculture ministry vowed to ensure a “relatively stable” domestic market in terms of prices, saying that the marginal relative price increases of certain products are “cyclical.”
Morocco’s agriculture production suffered from drought and lack of rainfall in the 2019/2020 season.
The country’s imports of cereals amounted to 5.9 million tons during the first seven months of 2020. The number represents an increase of 49.8% from the same period in 2019.
In April, the ministry estimated Morocco’s three main cereals, common wheat, durum wheat, and barley, at 30 million quitals for the 2019-2020 agriculture season.
The number represented a 42% decrease compared to the previous season.
